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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias
Volume 16 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1465744
This article is part of the Research Topic Lifestyle and Environmental Influences on Alzheimer's Disease: Exploring the Roles of Diet, Exercise, Cognitive Reserve, Sleep, and Air Quality View all 10 articles

Disparities in Structural Brain Imaging in Older Adults from Rural Communities in Southern Nevada

Provisionally accepted
Xiaowei Zhuang Xiaowei Zhuang 1,2Dietmar Cordes, PhD Dietmar Cordes, PhD 1,3Jessica Z. Kirkland Caldwell Jessica Z. Kirkland Caldwell 1Andrew R. Bender Andrew R. Bender 1Justin B. Miller Justin B. Miller 1*
  • 1 Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health - Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
  • 2 Department of Neuroscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, United States
  • 3 University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    INTRODUCTION: Identifying the associations between rural-living or neighborhood disadvantage and neurobiology may clarify rural-urban disparities in older adults with cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer’s disease. METHODS: We examined rural-urban differences and neighborhood disadvantages in brain cortical thickness (CT) measures among 71 rural and 87 urban-dwelling older adults. Analysis of covariance was used to test each FreeSurfer-derived CT measures’ associations with rural-urban living, clinical impairment status, and their interactions. Post-hoc linear regressions were used to test the association between CT measures and neighborhood disadvantage index. RESULTS: Rural-dwelling older adults had thinner cortices in temporal and inferior frontal regions compared to urban participants, especially among clinically normal participants, where the thinner temporal cortex further correlated with higher neighborhood disadvantage. Conversely, rural participants had thicker cortices in superior frontal, parietal and occipital regions. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest a complex interplay between community contexts and neurobiology. For memory-related regions, rural-living and neighborhood disadvantage might be negatively associated with subjects’ brain structures.

    Keywords: Rural-urban differences, cortical thickness, Neighborhood disadvantage, rural-urban commuting area (RUCA), Dementia, Alzheimer Disease

    Received: 16 Jul 2024; Accepted: 17 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhuang, Cordes, PhD, Kirkland Caldwell, Bender and Miller. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Justin B. Miller, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health - Las Vegas, Las Vegas, 89106, Nevada, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.