Pilot Project, Year 6
The Roles of Daily Stressor Control and Social Determinants of Health in Cognitive Aging: Examining Modifiable Contributors to Cognitive Health Disparities in Daily Life
Over 6.5 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease. Arizona has experienced a 33% increase in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease since 2020, the largest percentage increase in the country. Risk of Alzheimer’s disease is higher among individuals with less socioeconomic resources such as lower neighborhood quality, increased discrimination, and less years of education. Indigenous and Latinx populations in Arizona and across the US face systemic barriers to healthcare and experience disproportionately higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease than other ethnic/racial groups. We need to identify resources in our daily lives, such as perceiving control over our daily stress, that buffer against these cognitive health disparities and advance Alzheimer’s disease prevention among those at greatest risk in our communities.
Study aims
- Evaluate whether concurrent relationships between daily stressor control and cognitive health differ across social determinants of health.
- Evaluate whether the predictive utility of daily stressor control for cognitive health 10 years later differs across social determinants of health.
We propose a formal evaluation of whether the impact of perceived control over daily stress on cognitive health differs across levels of education, neighborhood characteristics, and discrimination to inform ways to promote cognitive health equity and address cognitive health disparities in everyday life. This project uses data from the National Study of Daily Experiences, a national sample of adults across the lifespan that completed eight consecutive days of telephone interviews in 2005 and 2015. We will test the expectation that individuals with more control over their daily stress will have better cognitive health, and this relationship will be strongest among people with less education, worse rated neighborhood quality, and higher perceived discrimination. We will examine relationships in the same year and over 10 years to understand how control over daily stress may predict better cognitive health after 10 years of aging. We propose systematic outreach efforts communicating what we learn with our local communities in Northern Arizona and across the globe at research conferences.
Funding: The study is funded by NIMHD/NIH 5U54MD012388
About the investigators
Eric S. Cerino, PhD
Michael J. McCarthy, PhD
Publications Accordion Closed
- Cerino, E.S., Charles, S.T., Piazza, J.R., Rush, J., Looper, A.M., Witzel, D.D., Mogle, J., & Almeida, D.M. (under review). Preserving what matters: Longitudinal changes in control over interpersonal stress and non-interpersonal stress in daily life. Manuscript under review in Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.
- Cerino, E.S., Charles, S.T., Mogle, J., Rush, J., Piazza, J.R., Klepacz, L.M., Lachman, M.E., & Almeida, D.M. (in press). Perceived control across the adult lifespan: Longitudinal changes in global control and daily stressor control. Manuscript in press in Developmental Psychology. Doi: 10.1037/dev000161
Conferences Accordion Closed
- Cerino, E.S., McClaskey, B.N., Cruz-Carrillo, Y., & Almeida, D.M. (2023). Associations between daily stressor control and cognitive function. Oral presentation presented as part of the symposium, From micro to macro: Psychosocial and behavioral predictors of cognitive aging across days and decades, at the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (November 8, 2023, Tampa, FL).
- Cerino, E.S., Witzel, D.D., Horowitz, C.S., & Almeida, D.M. (2023). Associations between control and resolution of daily stress: Results from the National Study of Daily Experiences. Oral presentation presented at to the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (November 10, 2023, Tampa, FL).
- Witzel, D.D., Cerino, E.S., Taylor, Z.E., & Almeida, D.M. (2023). Daily stressor control and emotional reactions: The unique role of interpersonal stressors. Oral presentation presented as part of the symposium, Relationship-related stress and emotional well-being: Findings from daily diary studies, at the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (November 12, 2023, Tampa, FL).
- Cerino, E.S., McCarthy, M.J., Horowitz, C.S., & Almeida, D.M. (2023). The roles of daily stressor control and social determinants of health in executive function and episodic memory performance. Poster presentation given at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (July 17, 2023, in Amsterdam, Netherlands).
Media Accordion Closed
- Toth, H. (2023, March 24). The relationships between humans and stress? It’s complicated. The NAU Review. Retrieved from https://news.nau.edu/cerino-stress-study/.
- Anderson, M. (2022, January 18). Department welcomes Dr. Eric Cerino to the Mountain Campus. NAU’s Department of Psychological Sciences. Retrieved from https://legacy.nau.edu/psychological-sciences/department-welcomes-dr-eric-cerino-to-the-mountain-campus/.