K01AG081566

Cognitive Health and Modifiable Factors of Daily Sleep and Activities Among Dementia Family Caregivers - Project Summary

Approximately 16 million Americans serve as family caregivers for a person with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and this care can take a physical and emotional toll. Understudied is how this informal care can affect caregiver cognitive health and associated daily sleep and activities, all of which are modifiable health behaviors.

Engaging in personally meaningful and cognitively stimulating activities can benefit cognitive and sleep health among dementia care dyads. Despite the importance of activity engagement for cognitive functioning and sleep quality, existing assessment of activities and outcomes is often self-reported asynchronously at global levels.

Contemporaneous assessment of activities, sleep, and cognitive health and well-being would significantly advance research in this area by:
1) Conducting objective assessments on daily sleep and activities within a dyadic context,
2) Determining how the social context of caregivers' assistance for the individuals with dementia's activity engagement moderates the associations between cognitive health and well-being, and daily sleep and activities, and
3) Determining how a chronic stress biomarker, hair cortisol concentration, mediates the activities- and sleep-cognition associations in naturalistic settings.

The proposed mentored career development award combines a rigorous program of research, mentorship, and didactics to facilitate the candidate's growth toward an overall career goal of becoming an independent investigator focused on informing the design of interventions for aging caregiving dyads with complex care needs, including dementia, to improve both partners' well-being.

The training aims will assist the candidate in acquiring:
1) Grounded knowledge of clinical care and educational needs among care dyads relating to neurocognitive assessment, functioning, and understanding the clinical aspects of dementia,
2) Specialized skills in the assessment, analysis, and interpretation of daily sleep and activity measures and the biological measure of chronic stress that link to the dementia care situation and specifically to caregiver cognitive health and well-being, and
3) Expertise in the application of intensive repeated measures designs that will generate novel insights on proximal risk and protective factors for poor caregiver outcomes within the dyadic context.

The training aims seek to further develop the candidate's expertise as an interdisciplinary researcher in the area of later-life dementia family caregiving and align closely with the research aims to:
1) Quantify caregiver daily sleep characteristics with actigraphy and determine their associations with caregiver cognitive functioning and well-being,
2) Quantify caregiver daily activity characteristics with accelerometry and determine their associations with caregiver cognitive functioning and well-being, and
3) Characterize how caregiver assistance for PLWD's activity engagement moderates, and how hair cortisol concentration mediates associations of sleep-cognition and activities-cognition.

An integrated, biopsychosocial approach to identifying protective factors that promote resilience and reduce harmful risk factors will inform the development of future targeted caregiver interventions in the dyadic context for a highly vulnerable aging population.

Utah State University

TO ENCOURAGE BIOMEDICAL, SOCIAL, AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH AND RESEARCH TRAINING DIRECTED TOWARD GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE AGING PROCESS AND THE DISEASES, SPECIAL PROBLEMS, AND NEEDS OF PEOPLE AS THEY AGE. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING HAS ESTABLISHED PROGRAMS TO PURSUE THESE GOALS. THE DIVISION OF AGING BIOLOGY EMPHASIZES UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES OF AGING. THE DIVISION OF GERIATRICS AND CLINICAL GERONTOLOGY SUPPORTS RESEARCH TO IMPROVE THE ABILITIES OF HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS TO RESPOND TO THE DISEASES AND OTHER CLINICAL PROBLEMS OF OLDER PEOPLE. THE DIVISION OF BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCH SUPPORTS RESEARCH THAT WILL LEAD TO GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT BOTH THE PROCESS OF GROWING OLD AND THE PLACE OF OLDER PEOPLE IN SOCIETY. THE DIVISION OF NEUROSCIENCE FOSTERS RESEARCH CONCERNED WITH THE AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AS WELL AS THE RELATED SENSORY, PERCEPTUAL, AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES ASSOCIATED WITH AGING AND HAS A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM: TO EXPAND AND IMPROVE THE SBIR PROGRAM, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, TO INCREASE SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM: TO STIMULATE AND FOSTER SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO FOSTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.

93.866 - Aging Research

National Institute on Aging (NIA) [HHS - NIH]

Logan, Utah 843221415 United States

Single Zip Code

Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (Parent K01 - Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (PA-20-190)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 300% from $139,761 to $559,033.