How air quality and neighborhood design affect thinking and social connection in rural older adults
Official title: Cognitive Function, Air Quality, and Built Environment among Rural Residents at Risk for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias
Funded at Florida Atlantic University · NIH-11311345 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project uses wearables and daily surveys to look at whether air pollution, local neighborhood features, and social isolation affect thinking and memory in middle-aged and older rural adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Florida Atlantic University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boca Raton, United States) |
| Project start | August 15, 2023 |
| Project end | April 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $780,224 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG083925-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11311345 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Community-dwelling, dementia-free adults aged 21 and older living in the five Lake Okeechobee-area communities who can complete cognitive tests, surveys, and (for a subgroup) wear an Apple Watch are ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People with diagnosed dementia, those younger than 21, or residents who do not live in the target rural communities are unlikely to be eligible or to benefit directly from participation.
What this research studies
If you live in five communities around Lake Okeechobee and are middle-aged or older without dementia, researchers will follow you for up to five years with regular memory checks and questionnaires about your social life. They will link your results to community measures of air quality and the built environment to see how local conditions relate to thinking and memory over time. A smaller group of 120 participants will wear Apple Watches for two months and complete short daily surveys, especially during periods of agricultural burning, to collect detailed activity and exposure data. The goal is to spot patterns that might explain accelerated cognitive decline in rural residents and suggest ways to reduce risk.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could reveal environmental and social factors that raise dementia risk in rural adults and guide community or personal actions to protect thinking and memory.
How similar studies have gone: Prior research links air pollution and social isolation to worse cognition, but combining wearables, daily surveys, and community-level measures in a rural population is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Wiese, Lisa Ann — Florida Atlantic University
- Study coordinator: Wiese, Lisa Ann
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.