2024 GECC Town Hall Overview

In the fall of 2024, the GECC hosted a series of town hall meetings with nearly 300 unique participants from 130 organizations across 21 countries. These meetings yielded critical insights that will guide the GECC’s efforts over the next five years. These insights will help prioritize research areas where the GECC will create new resources and tools for researchers studying the exposome and its impact on brain health.

The GECC’s first town hall meetings on October 9th were a resounding success, bringing together 127 participants from 64 organizations across 13 countries to generate insights on the influences of brain health as people.

Participants discussed themes including:

  • Tools for assessing cognitive status
  • Educational attainment
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Indirect exposures
  • Sensory health
  • Loneliness
  • Inflammatory mechanisms of brain health
  • Extreme weather change impacts and responses
  • Health interventions
  • Retirement/pension and wealth
  • How we think, feel, and act on aging
  • Caregiving
  • Environmental health
  • Ethics of collecting data
  • Modifiable behaviors
  • Housing and neighborhood characteristics
  • Traumatic exposures like war and violence
  • Chemical stressors
  • Social and intergenerational relationships

The November town halls brought together 129 participants from 60 organizations across 12 countries.

Participants discussed the following topics:

  • Extreme weather change and healthy aging
  • Air pollution
  • Working history and environment
  • Social connection and belonging
  • Omics
  • Socioeconomic inequalities
  • Social determinants of health
  • Greenspace
  • Physical activity
  • Data harmonization
  • Community resources
  • Developmental origins of health and disease
  • Healthcare access
  • Physical environment
  • Chemical toxins exposure
  • Caregiving
  • Policy environment

The final set of town hall meetings for the year had 113 participants from 55 organizations across 10 countries.

Participants discussed the following topics:

  • Social isolation/connectivity
  • Outdoor environment
  • Biological/epigenetic clocks
  • Diet and food security
  • Physical activity
  • Work
  • Lifecourse/timeline/causality
  • Access to community resources
  • Air pollution
  • Built and social environment
  • Chemical exposures
  • Metabolism and brain health
  • Education/cognitive stimulation
  • Substance abuse
  • Stress

There were many shared themes across the town halls that were salient to all GECC domains. Three of the most resounding, overarching themes were (1) interdisciplinary collaboration, (2) innovative methodologies, and (3) development of novel measures.

In addition to these shared takeaways, each domain identified key areas of focus for their future research.

  • Life-course education and work-related policies: Policies that shape access to education and lifelong learning opportunities influence cognitive development and resilience against neurodegeneration. Additionally, policies promoting cognitively stimulating work environments, such as those encouraging occupational complexity, may help reduce Alzheimer’s disease risk.
  • Policies on Loneliness and Social Isolation: Loneliness and social isolation are linked to cognitive decline. Research in the policy domain will focus on policies that foster community engagement, such as promoting third spaces (e.g., community centers), improving digital literacy, and implementing social initiatives to connect individuals to local activities.
  • Caregiving and Long-Term Care policies: Policies affecting formal long-term care eligibility, respite services, and caregiver training shape the quality and accessibility of care for aging populations, influencing Alzheimer’s disease risk and resilience.
  • Community and Connection: Strong social networks and community support systems reduce social isolation and enhance cognitive resilience. Research will focus on how different types of relationships—family, friends, and community ties—impact Alzheimer’s disease risk and protective factors, as well as how interventions can strengthen these networks across different life stages.
  • Spatial and Structural Considerations: Neighborhood characteristics such as safety, walkability, and access to social spaces shape daily experiences and influence exposure to risk or protective factors for cognitive health. Research will examine how geographic disparities and built environment variations contribute to Alzheimer’s disease resilience.
  • Workplace Environment: Employment settings function as significant social environments. Research will explore how workplace dynamics, job stability, and social interactions at work affect brain health over the life course, including the role of workplace policies in mitigating stress and fostering cognitive engagement.
  • Access to Resources: Different levels of access to care services, physical activity programs, and social engagement opportunities may contribute to differences in Alzheimer’s disease risk across populations. Research will assess how economic and political factors shape service availability and use.
  • Early Life Exposures: Educational and occupational experiences, along with caregiving roles, shape access to and use of community services, impacting cognitive health outcomes. Research will investigate how early-life exposure to support systems influences long-term cognitive resilience.
  • Urban vs. Rural Disparities: Research will examine how differences in community service availability between urban and rural settings influence brain health. Particular attention should be given to how infrastructure, transportation, and healthcare access create barriers or opportunities for dementia risk reduction.
  • Air Quality: Exposure to air pollution, including particulate matter and toxic chemicals, has been linked to neuroinflammation and cognitive decline. Research will refine exposure assessments, identify the most harmful pollutants, and develop guidance for reducing exposure in high-risk communities.
  • Green Spaces: Access to parks, tree-lined streets, and biodiversity-rich environments promotes cognitive and emotional well-being through stress reduction, increased physical activity, and social engagement. Research will develop standardized indicators of greenspace quality and accessibility to optimize health benefits and evaluate the effectiveness of urban greening initiatives.
  • Neighborhood Characteristics: Urban planning can promote active lifestyles and social interaction, both protective against Alzheimer’s disease. Research will define the core features of healthy neighborhoods, including transportation access, noise pollution, and proximity to essential services, while considering how extreme weather and cultural factors influence their effectiveness.
  • Education, Work, and Status: Formal education as well as factors like literacy, numeracy, and access to lifelong learning opportunities could reduce ADRD risk. In addition, employment precarity, job characteristics, and caregiving responsibilities dimpact health, social ties, and economic well-being.
  • Health Behaviors: Physical activity, diet, substance use, sleep, and social engagement can reduce Alzheimer’s risk.
  • Social Relationships: Engaging with friends, family, and one’s community are critical for well-being and protective against dementia. They are also the foundation of a caregiving network when one’s physical and cognitive health declines.
  • Subjective Well-Being: Individuals experience a variety of emotions in their lives - sustained negative emotions, such as stress, depression, and loneliness, have the potential to increase dementia risk and fragility.
  • Extreme Weather Events: Acute extreme weather events (e.g., wildfires, floods, heat waves) and their cumulative effects on mental and physical health require further study. Research should examine how exposure to these events influences stress, inflammation, and cognitive decline over time.
  • Localized Risks and Population Vulnerabilities: extreme weather impacts vary across populations. Research will identify vulnerable groups, such as older adults with pre-existing health conditions, and assess long-term cognitive effects of different extreme weather exposures, including prolonged heat stress and poor air quality.
  • Integrated Research Approaches: Addressing extreme weather-related health risks necessitates multidisciplinary collaboration, global exposure metrics, and community-specific interventions. Research will prioritize developing frameworks for integrating extreme weather adaptation strategies into public health planning.
  • Advancing Measurement in Life Course Research: Innovative methodologies are needed to accurately measure cumulative exposures and Alzheimer’s disease outcomes. Research will focus on developing longitudinal tracking systems to better understand lifetime risk factors.
  • Measuring Cross-Domain Interactions: Investigating how social, physical, and economic factors interact will deepen understanding of Alzheimer’s disease risk and resilience. Research will develop computational models to capture the complexity of these interconnections.
  • Harmonization: Standardizing methodologies across cohorts and countries will improve data comparability and facilitate research collaboration, ensuring that findings can inform policy and other healthcare intervention strategies globally.

Download the notes from all of the town hall meetings

How Do the Town Halls Work?

The town halls allowed participants the opportunity to discuss what is most important to them. Hosted virtually on Zoom, participants began by suggesting key factors that may influence our communities’ risk of, resilience to, and disparities in Alzheimer’s and dementia. Breakout sessions then formed around these topics for participants to have focused discussions. Collaborative notes were taken so that these discussions will help guide participants and the GECC to set priorities for future scientific research and policies related to brain health.

Will More GECC Town Halls Be Done in the Future?

The GECC will host another round of town hall meetings in October to December 2026 to review progress on our initial priorities and identify any new priorities that have arisen in the interim.

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The GECC is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) U24AG088894.