Midlife memory and dementia risk in Kenyan adults
Official title: Measurement and Analysis of Aging, Cognition and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) Risk Factors at Midlife in the Kenya Life Panel Survey (KLPS)
Funded at University of California Berkeley · NIH-11322043 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This work looks at midlife thinking and memory and how childhood health and life experiences might affect future dementia risk for Kenyan adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California Berkeley NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Berkeley, United States) |
| Project start | May 15, 2022 |
| Project end | April 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $741,253 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG077001-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11322043 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are Kenyan adults who were part of the KLPS cohort and are now about 35–43 years old.
✕Less likely to help
People who were not in the original KLPS cohort or who are outside the target age range are unlikely to participate or gain direct benefit from this specific study.
What this research studies
If you take part, you would join a group of Kenyans who have been followed since childhood and complete a midlife interview with thinking and memory tests and health questions. The team will link your new midlife information to records from childhood and young adulthood, including past cognitive tests, schooling, and health history. Data collection will be done in person by field interviewers as part of the Kenya Life Panel Survey (KLPS) Round 5 Aging Module. The goal is to find which life-course factors relate to higher or lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias later on.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could reveal life stages and modifiable factors to target for preventing dementia in Kenya and similar settings.
How similar studies have gone: Long-term life-course studies in high-income countries have linked midlife factors to later dementia, but comparable research is rare in sub-Saharan Africa, so this approach is relatively novel there.
Where this research is happening
-
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Miguel, Edward Andrew — University of California Berkeley
- Study coordinator: Miguel, Edward Andrew
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
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Investigating risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in Kenyan adults.
This study is looking at what might increase the chances of developing Alzheimer's and related dementias in Kenyan adults aged 35 to 43, by exploring how their health, education, and social attitudes have changed since childhood.
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Combining aging surveys to understand memory, Alzheimer's, and dementia care
This project brings together long-term survey data from many countries and adds things like air pollution and care-policy information to see how they relate to memory, mild cognitive problems, and Alzheimer's risk in older adults.
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Understanding cognitive variability in adults with Down syndrome and its link to Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers
A study of adults with Down syndrome to see if everyday ups and downs in thinking tests can predict Alzheimer’s-related changes and dementia using blood and brain biomarkers.
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Thinking variability and Alzheimer's markers in adults with Down syndrome
This project looks at whether ups-and-downs in thinking tests can signal early Alzheimer's in adults with Down syndrome.
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Vascular factors and genetic risks in Alzheimer’s disease
A large NIH grant is exploring how blood vessel health and genetic risk, including APOE variants, influence Alzheimer’s disease and its early cognitive changes.
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Beaver Dam Offspring Study: How midlife senses and aging markers relate to early Alzheimer’s and dementia
This study follows adults who previously participated in a long-term cohort to see if midlife changes in hearing, vision, smell, and aging biomarkers can predict later risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
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.