UF student receives funding to study ethnic minority disparities in late-life cognition

Adrienne Aiken, a graduate student in the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions’ department of clinical and health psychology, has received a research supplement for underrepresented minorities from the National Institute on Aging.

The supplements are awarded to qualified minority students in the health sciences to provide them an opportunity to further develop their research capabilities.

Aiken, a graduate trainee in the predoctoral aging training program, studies cognitive aging in minority populations, including the effects of health disparities, such as cardiovascular risk factors, on the rates of cognitive decline and dementia in African-American older adults. She works under the direction of Michael Marsiske, Ph.D., an associate professor of clinical and health psychology, who investigates mental changes that occur with aging.