Acculturation in Context and Brain Health in Older Latino Adults: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Latinos are at higher risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease than non-Latino Whites. Acculturation factors may influence this risk, yet there are few studies that have examined associations of acculturation, particularly in the context of socioenvironmental and familial factors, and brain health in older Latinos. OBJECTIVE: To examine potential associations between acculturation in context and brain health in older Latinos. METHODS: Using three previously established composites of acculturation-in-context, (acculturation-related: nativity status, language preference, acculturation scores; contextually-related socioenvironmental: perceived discrimination, loneliness/social isolation, social network size; and familism), and diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI), associations with white matter structural integrity were examined in 92 Latino adults without dementia participating in one of three epidemiological studies of aging. Linear regression models were used to test associations with DTI-derived metrics (fractional anisotropy, FA; trace) as separate outcomes and acculturation composite scores as individual predictors, while adjusting for age, sex, education, scanner, and white matter hyperintensities (voxelwise and total volumes normalized by intracranial volume). RESULTS: Higher scores on the socioenvironmental composite were associated with lower FA in two clusters of left-hemisphere connections. Cluster 1 was dominated by both short association pathways connecting frontal regions and projection pathways connecting frontal regions with the thalamus. Cluster 2 was dominated by long association pathways connecting parietal, frontal, and temporal regions. CONCLUSIONS: This study of older Latino adults demonstrated an association between reduced brain white matter integrity and contextually related socioenvironmental experiences known to increase risk of MCI and Alzheimer's disease.
Source: Journal of Alzheimer s Disease
DOI: 10.3233/jad-230491
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Epidemiologic Study of Neural Reserve and Neurobiology of Aging, Comprehensive Longitudinal Probabilistic Atlas of the Brain of Older Adults Without Dementia, Rush Alzheimer's Disease Core Center, Longitudinal validation of cerebral small vessel disease biomarkers in diverse community-based older adults without dementia, In-vivo MRI-based prediction of TDP43 pathology in aging, Culturally relevant contributors to cognitive and MRI changes in older Latinos, Racial Differences in Late-Life Cognitive decline and risk of Alzheimer's Disease, Longitudinal validation of cerebral small vessel disease biomarkers in diverse community-based older adults without dementia, Rush Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
OpenAlex ID: W4386634336