This application for an NIA Administrative Supplement proposes to expand Alzheimer's Disease Risk and Ethnic Factors: The Case of Arab Americans (R01AG057510) to incorporate an assessment of COVID-19 stress as an area of investigation through an immediate, brief telephone interview. The parent study is the first of its kind to focus on AD health disparities in Arab Americans aged 65 and over living in the metro-Detroit area, home to the largest and most visible Arab American community in the US. Building on the original study, the planned supplement leverages an existing longitudinal study of Blacks and Whites from the same geographic area. Capitalizing on the bilingual data collection instruments prepared and finalized for the parent now delayed face-to-face study, we will conduct telephone interviews to address the following aims: 1) Characterize prevalence of COVID-19 stress types and cognitive health in metro-Detroit among three racial/ethnic groups; 2) Identify aspects of social relations that buffer links between COVID-19 stress and cognitive health; and 3) Determine the role of pre-existing social resources on COVID-19 stress and cognitive health. This project will document the prevalence of pandemic stress and its link to cognitive health among these vulnerable older adults in three prominent racial/ethnic groups in Michigan. Further, the telephone mode of the proposed data collection will provide a methodological opportunity to compare modes of cognitive health data collection between the newly proposed and parent study (delayed due to COVID-19) among diverse racial/ethnic groups. Establishing reactions to COVID-19 and examining links to cognitive health provides an innovative, cost effective opportunity to more fully identify health disparities. Understanding the contribution of social relations will refine theory about stress and cognitive health, provide key information to better prepare for future pandemics and develop intervention strategies for eradication of cognitive health disparities.
This project will document the prevalence of pandemic stress and its link to cognitive health among older Arab Americans, Blacks and Whites in Michigan. Further, it will show if, how and why social relations modify the effects of pandemic stress on cognitive health for all groups and if there are racial and ethnic differences in these sources of support and stress. Understanding the contribution of social relations to the associations between COVID-19 stress and cognitive health will provide key information to better prepare for future pandemics as well as refine theory about AD risk in this growing and high cost disease.
