Systemic chronic low-grade inflammation increases with aging and contributes to the risk or progression of a myriad of chronic diseases. Greater midlife inflammation has detrimental effects on future health outcomes. However, few studies have quantified inflammatory markers from midlife longitudinal measurements. Here, we measured cytokines, chemokines, and clinical biomarkers of inflammation at three different time points in...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms Have been linked to cognitive functioning. However, the impact of PTSD and depression on cognitive functioning, especially among middle-aged urban adults, is not well understood. Cross-sectional data were analyzed from 1434 participants from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span study. We used multivariable adjusted linear regression a...

A new DNA methylation biomarker, Dunedin Pace of Aging Calculated from the Epigenome (DunedinPACE), is associated with healthy lifespan in several European ancestry cohorts. Few studies have examined the relation between dietary quality and DunedinPACE in African American and White adults with longitudinal assessments. To assess the relationship between diet quality and DunedinPACE, we used longitudinal data from African Ameri...

Dementia, with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) accounting for 60–70% of its occurrences, is a multifactorial disorder marked by cognitive and functional decline. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) stratify genetic risk for complex diseases, including AD. Integrating PRS with metabolomics offers a pathway to better understand AD etiology and identify biomarkers for early detection. We explored the association between AD PRS, metabolomics, an...

Polypharmacy is common among older adults and has been linked to adverse outcomes such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and mortality. However, its influence on transitions between these health states remains understudied in large, population-based cohorts. Using data from 361,970 UK Biobank participants aged 50 and older with up to 15 years of follow-up, we examined the association between polypharmacy, defined as the u...

We tested whether homocysteine (Hcy) was linked to longitudinal change in plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) overall and differentially across sex and race in a sample of middle-aged urban adults. We used data from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study [ n = 690, Age at visit 1 (v 1 :2004–2009): 30-66y, 42.1% male, 55.4% African American] to evaluate relationships between NfL l...

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a complex polygenic neurodegenerative disorder. Its genetic risk’s relationship with all-cause dementia may be influenced by the plasma proteome. Up to 40,139 UK Biobank participants aged ≥ 50y at baseline assessment (2006–2010) were followed-up for ≤ 15 y for dementia incidence. Plasma proteomics were performed on a sub-sample of UK Biobank participants ( k = 1,463 plasma proteins). AD polygenic ri...

Mediation pathways explaining racial/ethnic and socioeconomic (SES) disparities in structural MRI markers of brain health remain underexplored. We examined racial/ethnic and SES disparities in sMRI markers and tested total, direct, and indirect effects through lifestyle, health-related, and cognition factors using a structural equations modeling approach among 36,184 UK Biobank participants aged 40–70 years at baseline assessm...

To examine cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships of psychotropic medications with physical function after menopause. Analyses involved 4557 Women’s Health Initiative Long Life Study (WHI-LLS) participants (mean age at WHI enrollment (1993–1998): 62.8 years). Antidepressant, anxiolytic, and sedative/hypnotic medications were evaluated at WHI enrollment and 3-year follow-up visits. Performance-based physical function [S...