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We sought to study the effect of an\n                  <jats:italic>in utero<\/jats:italic>\n                  nutritional environment and its interaction with Alzheimer\u2019s disease (AD) genetic risk on late-life cognitive function. We used a natural experiment created by the pellagra epidemic, a nutritional disease caused by a vitamin B\n                  <jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>\n                  deficiency, to evaluate the association between\n                  <jats:italic>in utero<\/jats:italic>\n                  pellagra epidemic exposure and late-life cognitive function in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 18,285). We also evaluated whether the\n                  <jats:italic>in utero<\/jats:italic>\n                  exposure could modify the AD polygenic score\u2019s (PGS) effect on cognition.\n                  <jats:italic>In utero<\/jats:italic>\n                  pellagra epidemic exposure was significantly associated with cognition (\u03b2 = \u22120.025). However, these effects were not isolated to the prenatal period as exposure during childhood periods also had an effect. The interaction between the\n                  <jats:italic>in utero<\/jats:italic>\n                  exposure and the AD PGS was significant, where the genetic effect on cognition was amplified with increasing (progressively worse)\n                  <jats:italic>in utero<\/jats:italic>\n                  exposure levels. These associations imply that the early-life nutritional environment affects late-life cognitive function and that these effects can modify genetic risk.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.06.11.26355481","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T16:25:46Z","timestamp":1782145546000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Early-life nutritional environment is associated with late-life cognition in the Health and Retirement Study, a pellagra epidemic natural experiment"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9751-8305","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eva","family":"Vasiljevic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 610 Walnut Dr., Madison, WI 53726, USA"},{"name":"Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive Madison, WI 53706, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1641-289X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lauren L.","family":"Schmitz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive Madison, WI 53706, USA"},{"name":"Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1225 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4750-5607","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Corinne D.","family":"Engelman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 610 Walnut Dr., Madison, WI 53726, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026062317402400000_2026.06.11.26355481v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1257\/000282805774669943"},{"key":"2026062317402400000_2026.06.11.26355481v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jalz.2014.12.007"},{"key":"2026062317402400000_2026.06.11.26355481v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0002-9343(67)90067-8"},{"key":"2026062317402400000_2026.06.11.26355481v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v067.i01"},{"key":"2026062317402400000_2026.06.11.26355481v1.5","first-page":"211","article-title":"Politics and pellagra: The epidemic of pellagra in the U","volume":"65","year":"1992","journal-title":"S. in the early twentieth century. 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