Older people with asthma (OPWA) often have debilitating walking impairments that are predictive of adverse health outcomes including poor cognition. However, the mechanisms connecting asthma with mobility problems haven’t yet been identified.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Roee Holtzer, Ph.D., and Jonathan Feldman, Ph.D., a five-year, $3.6 million grant to examine the neurological processes (e.g., gray matter volume and  thickness and white matter integrity) and behavioral processes (e.g., medication use)  involved in asthma’s influence on  walking. Drs. Holtzer and Feldman and Albert Einstein College of Medicine colleagues (Mark Wagshul, Ph.D., Sunit Jariwala, M.D., Jimmy Lee, M.D., Ph.D., Jaeun Choi, Ph.D.) will focus on asthma-related factors that can be modified through behavioral changes such as better adherence to drug regimens. The study will enroll 120 OPWA aged 60 to 80 and 120 control individuals. Researchers will use a dual-task walking assessment that validly predicts health outcomes, functional-near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to determine asthma’s influence on brain activation levels and trajectories of walking, as well as MRI methods for identifying mechanisms by which the brain controls walking in OPWA. The findings should lead to increased understanding of asthma-specific brain circuit disruptions and suggest strategies for improving the physical and cognitive abilities OPWA.

Dr. Holtzer is professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology at Einstein. Dr. Feldman is professor of pediatrics and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Einstein. (1R01HL169316-01A1)