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Innovative approaches to prevent dementia funded by $28.8 million federal grant

Kaiser Permanente researchers are participating in 5-year, multi-site research project

A 5-year project to find innovative approaches to prevent dementia has received $28.8 million from the National Institute on Aging. Paola Gilsanz, ScD, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, is one of 3 principal investigators on the project.

Paola Gilsanz, ScD

The Triangulation of Innovative Methods to End Alzheimer’s Disease (TIME-AD) project will use large, diverse datasets from multiple health care systems to examine whether interventions targeting alcohol use, depression, vision or hearing impairments, or social isolation can protect people from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

This project is a collaboration among Maria Glymour, SD, chair and professor epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, Jacqueline Torres, PhD, MA, MPH, associate professor of epidemiology & biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco along with Gilsanz.

Additional DOR investigators participating in the study include Catherine Schaefer, PhD, who will co-lead a focus on depression; Stacy Sterling, DrPH, MSW, who will co-lead a focus on alcohol use; along with Cynthia Campbell, PhD, MPH, and Hélène Choquet, PhD.

“This is an exciting opportunity to use data from a variety of complimentary sources to better understand the associations between these risk factors — which we already know how to address — and dementia risk,” Gilsanz said.

The project’s design is meant to address limitations of previous research that have relied on observational methods that make it difficult to establish definitive causes of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The investigators want to develop more reliable evidence to guide prevention and treatment strategies for these degenerative neurological diseases.

“Preventing diseases like Alzheimer’s and other causes of memory loss and dementia is among the highest priority for older adults, yet, we still lack rigorous evidence on what works,” Glymour said.

The project will also prioritize health equity, exploring differences in risk by gender, race, or ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The large databases maintained by the collaborating research organizations will allow for analysis of smaller subgroups.

Learn more about the project on the Boston University School of Medicine website.

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