Award
NIH Reporter #2R01AG064440-06A1
POINTER-zzz: Sleep ancillary to U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk of Alzheimer's Disease
Recipient
Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem, NC, United States
Award Amount
$1,430,067.00
Ceiling
$1,430,067.00
Awarded
August 25, 2026
Identifier
2R01AG064440-06A1
This award funds the POINTER-zzz ancillary study, an extension of the U.S. POINTER clinical trial, to evaluate long-term effects of lifestyle interventions on sleep health and brain health in older adults at risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. It includes expanded sleep assessments and integration with neuroimaging and vascular health data.
Description
The U.S. study to PrOtect brain health through lifestyle INTErvention to Reduce risk (U.S. POINTER) is a multisite randomized clinical trial launched in 2018 to test the effects of two 2-year lifestyle interventions on global cognitive function in 2,111 older adults at elevated risk for cognitive decline. This continuation provides a critical opportunity to examine longer-term trajectories of sleep, a major but understudied modifiable risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). The POINTER-zzz ancillary study added in-home, objective sleep assessments for 780 parent trial participants, focusing on chronic sleep disturbances such as sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and sleep fragmentation. The renewal will extend follow-up and expand sleep phenotyping to include assessment of multidimensional sleep health based on the RuSATED framework—Regularity, Satisfaction, Alertness, Timing, Efficiency, and Duration—along with innovative sleep apnea metrics not previously examined in lifestyle intervention trials for older adults at risk for cognitive decline. Data from co-enrolled ancillary studies of neuroimaging and vascular/neurovascular health will be leveraged to investigate associations of sleep metrics with brain health markers (MRI, PET Aβ and tau, arterial stiffness, cerebral autoregulation, autonomic function), and cognition. The extension offers a unique opportunity to evaluate long-term effects on sleep trajectories and brain health, guiding future prevention strategies.