Preserving Cognitive Resilience: A Biracial Parent-Offspring Study (18-4674) - Feasibility Study

The specific aims of the parent NIA grant (R01AG058679, MPIs: Rajan & Evans, 2019-2024) has threecomponents: (1) Investigate factors, including behavioral and social factors, associated with epidemiologically-derived cognitive resilience in a biracial population study, the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP: Age65+ years, 60% African Americans [AAs]); (2) Recruit a biracial offspring cohort, Parent Offspring Resilienceand Cognitive Health (PORCH: Age: 40-64, 50% AAs) study; (3) Examine whether cognitive resilience inparents are associated with global cognition and risk of MCI and dementia in offspring. Coronavirus disease2019 (COVID-19) has devastated global populations and has had a large impact in the United States. Thetransmission of COVID-19 is strongly influenced by population demographics, behavioral, and socialcharacteristics, factors which might also have a substantial impact on cognitive function by increasing the riskof MCI and dementia in older parents and midlife offspring, and by reducing cognitive resilience in olderparents, the primary outcomes of the parent grant. The one-year Administrative Supplement will test the feasibility of community-level COVID-19 testingthrough self-administered SARS-CoV-2 RNA nasal swab and fingerstick antibodies testing. Crucially, it canprovide preliminary data on the impact of COVID-19 infections, and behavioral and social factors, such as,household environment, pandemic stress, and social distancing on cognitive health in 100 older CHAP parentsand 100 midlife PORCH offspring with 50% AAs. This administrative supplement will conduct a feasibility studyto test SARS-CoV-2 antigens and antibodies in a well characterized, ethnically diverse, community-basedparent-offspring study with a large number of AAs. Additionally, provide feasibility to enhance the researchvalue of the parent PORCH study by expanding parent grant Aims 1 and 3 through adding COVID-19 to theexposures leading to decreased parental cognitive resilience and expanding parent grant Aim 3 by addingbehavioral and social characteristics and COVID-19 to the exposures leading to impaired offspring MRIIndices, cognitive performance and BP, and feasibility to examine possible racial/ethnic differences in theseeffects.