The association of educational attainment and SBP among older community-living adults: the Maintenance of Balance, Independent Living, Intellect and Zest in the Elderly (MOBILIZE) Boston Study.

Objective: Educational attainment is inversely associated with SBP level in young adulthood. This association has not been studied in an older cohort, and confounding and mediating factors are not well known.

Methods: The authors hypothesized that higher education is associated with lower levels of SBP independent of many risk factors for hypertension.

Latent class analysis of early developmental trajectory in baby siblings of children with autism.

Background: Siblings of children with autism (sibs-A) are at increased genetic risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and milder impairments. To elucidate diversity and contour of early developmental trajectories exhibited by sibs-A, regardless of diagnostic classification, latent class modeling was used.

Methods: Sibs-A (N = 204) were assessed with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning from age 6 to 36 months.

Longitudinal change in neuropsychological performance using latent growth models: a study of mild cognitive impairment.

The goal of the current study was to examine cognitive change in both healthy controls (n = 229) and individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n = 397) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). We applied latent growth modeling to examine baseline and longitudinal change over 36 months in five cognitive factors derived from the ADNI neuropsychological test battery (memory, executive function/processing speed, language, attention and visuospatial). At baseline, MCI patients demonstrated lower performance on all of the five cognitive factors when compared to controls.

Parallel but not equivalent: challenges and solutions for repeated assessment of cognition over time.

Objective: Analyses of individual differences in change may be unintentionally biased when versions of a neuropsychological test used at different follow-ups are not of equivalent difficulty. This study's objective was to compare mean, linear, and equipercentile equating methods and demonstrate their utility in longitudinal research.

Study Design And Setting: The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE, N = 1,401) study is a longitudinal randomized trial of cognitive training.

Memory training interventions for older adults: a meta-analysis.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of memory training research was conducted to characterize the effect of memory strategies on memory performance among cognitively intact, community-dwelling older adults, and to identify characteristics of individuals and of programs associated with improved memory. The review identified 402 publications, of which 35 studies met criteria for inclusion. The overall effect size estimate, representing the mean standardized difference in pre-post change between memory-trained and control groups, was 0.

Modeling longitudinal change in motor and cognitive processing speed in presymptomatic Huntington's disease.

Persons who have the genetic mutation responsible for Huntington's disease (HD) have been shown to exhibit lower cognitive test scores years prior to manifest HD. Most studies have examined cognitive performance in presymptomatic persons by using estimated times to manifest HD based on published algorithms. We followed 19 gene-positive persons who were presymptomatic using an objective criterion (i.

Cognitive predictors of everyday functioning in older adults: results from the ACTIVE Cognitive Intervention Trial.

Objective: The present study sought to predict changes in everyday functioning using cognitive tests.

Methods: Data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly trial were used to examine the extent to which competence in different cognitive domains--memory, inductive reasoning, processing speed, and global mental status--predicts prospectively measured everyday functioning among older adults. Coefficients of determination for baseline levels and trajectories of everyday functioning were estimated using parallel process latent growth models.

Modeling change in memory performance and memory perceptions: findings from the ACTIVE study.

Within the context of the ACTIVE study, the current investigation explored the relationships between objective memory and two components of subjective memory (frequency of forgetting and use of external aids) over a five-year period. Relationships were assessed using parallel process latent growth curve models. Results indicated that changes in objective memory were associated with changes in perceived frequency of forgetting, but not with use of external aids (calendars, reminder notes) over time.

Memory training and strategy use in older adults: results from the ACTIVE study.

Little is known about the long-term effects of memory training in later life on strategy use. Data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study (n = 1,401) were used to describe strategy use in a community-dwelling sample of older adults. Strategy clustering scores on verbal list learning tasks of episodic memory were used to test the impact of memory training on strategy use and study longitudinal associations between strategy clustering, memory performance, and everyday functioning.

Mediators and moderators of a psychosocial intervention for children affected by political violence.

Objective: The authors examined moderators and mediators of a school-based psychosocial intervention for children affected by political violence, according to an ecological resilience theoretical framework.

Method: The authors examined data from a cluster randomized trial, involving children aged 8-13 in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia (treatment condition n = 182, waitlist control condition n = 221). Mediators (hope, coping, peer/emotional/play social support) and moderators (gender, age, family connectedness, household size, other forms of social support, exposure to political violence, and displacement) of treatment outcome on posttraumatic stress symptoms and function impairment were examined in parallel process latent growth curve models.

Word list memory predicts everyday function and problem-solving in the elderly: results from the ACTIVE cognitive intervention trial.

Data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) trial (N = 2,802) were analyzed to examine whether word list learning predicts future everyday functioning. Using stepwise random effects modeling, measures from the modified administrations of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) and the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) were independently predictive of everyday IADL functioning, problem-solving, and psychomotor speed. Associations between memory scores and everyday functioning outcomes remained significant across follow-up intervals spanning 5 years.

Alcohol consumption and domain-specific cognitive function in older adults: longitudinal data from the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study.

Objectives: The association of alcohol consumption with performance in different cognitive domains has not been well studied.

Methods: The Johns Hopkins Precursors Study was used to examine associations between prospectively collected information about alcohol consumption ascertained on multiple occasions starting at age 55 years on average with domain-specific cognition at age 72 years. Cognitive variables measured phonemic and semantic fluency, attention, verbal memory, and global cognition.

Depression and cancer risk: 24 years of follow-up of the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area sample.

Objective: The objective was to characterize the relationship between depression and incident cancer. Few studies have employed population-based prospective data on subtypes of cancer to address the question.

Method: A population-based sample of 3,177 cancer-free adults from the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study who have been followed for 24 years.