Publications by authors named "Dhana K"

Article Synopsis
  • This study explored the connection between blood pressure variability (BPV) and cognitive function in older adults, particularly focusing on those over 65 years old.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 4,770 participants from the Chicago Health and Aging Project, measuring blood pressure every three years and assessing cognitive abilities through standardized tests.
  • Results indicated that higher BPV was linked to lower cognitive scores, especially among older Black adults, suggesting that fluctuations in blood pressure could contribute to cognitive decline as people age.
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Background: Evidence suggests that long-term exposure to air pollution may increase the risk of dementia and related cognitive outcomes. A major source of air pollution is automotive traffic, which is modifiable by technological and regulatory interventions.

Objectives: We examined associations of four traffic-related air pollutants with rates of cognitive decline in a cohort of older adults.

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  • - Individuals with subjective memory complaints (SMCs) have higher levels of neurodegeneration biomarkers like neurofilament light chain (NfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), indicating increased neurodegenerative processes.
  • - The study involved 1,096 older adults and found that those with more memory complaints experienced a 12% increase in NfL and a 9.4% increase in GFAP compared to those with fewer complaints.
  • - Participants reporting more memory issues also showed a faster cognitive decline, suggesting that SMCs could help identify individuals at higher risk for neurodegenerative conditions.
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  • This study investigates the impact of beverage consumption during adolescence on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in adulthood, using a cohort of 41,317 women from the Nurses' Health Study II.
  • It found that higher intake of coffee and orange juice in adolescence was linked to a lower risk of T2DM, while regular soda and iced tea consumption was associated with a higher risk.
  • Changes in beverage habits from adolescence to adulthood also influenced T2DM risk, with increased coffee intake reducing risk and increased regular soda consumption elevating it.
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Introduction: It is unclear whether inflammation, that is, high interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, and genetic risk, that is, apolipoprotein E () ε4 allele, have a compounding effect on cognitive decline (CD).

Methods: We analyzed a subset of participants from the longitudinal cohort study, Chicago Health and Aging Project, comprising 1120 biracial community-dwelling older adults (60% Black and 62% women), and mean follow-up = 6.4 years.

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Introduction: We examined the Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet's association with cognitive decline by race among older adults in the Chicago Health and Aging Project.

Methods: Five thousand two hundred fifty-nine participants (73.5 [± 6.

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  • Identifying high-risk individuals for Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia allows for early intervention, which can prevent or delay the disease's onset.
  • The study evaluated four AD dementia risk-prediction models using data from over 2,000 participants and found that the Brief Dementia Screening Indicator (BDSI) was the most effective for predicting risk in both Black and White adults.
  • There is a need for race-specific risk models due to racial disparities in AD prevalence and the varying duration of disease development, especially as prediction accuracy diminishes over longer follow-up periods.
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Background: Suboptimal diets may promote undesired weight gain in youths, with high ultraprocessed food (UPF) intake becoming a significant concern in the United States.

Objectives: We evaluated the association between UPF intake and body mass index [BMI (in kg/m)] change in large United States youth cohorts.

Methods: Participants included children and adolescents (7-17 y) from the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS1 and GUTS2) who completed baseline and ≥1 follow-up diet and anthropometrics assessment (GUTS1 1996-2001: N = 15,797; GUTS2 2004-2011: N = 9720).

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Background: APOE-e4 is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. However, the influence of APOE-e4 on dietary fat intake and cognition has not been investigated.

Objective: We aim to examine the association of types of dietary fat and their association to cognitive decline among those with and without the APOE-e4 allele.

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Objective: To develop and externally validate a 10-year risk prediction model of natural onset of menopause using ready-to-use predictors.

Design: Population-based prospective cohort study.

Participants: Community-dwelling, premenopausal women aged 28 years and older enrolled in the Swiss (CoLaus) and Dutch (PREVEND) study.

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Importance: A healthy lifestyle is associated with better cognitive functioning in older adults, but whether this association is independent of the accumulation of dementia-related pathologies in the brain is uncertain.

Objective: To determine the role of postmortem brain pathology, including β-amyloid load, phosphorylated tau tangles, cerebrovascular pathology, and other brain pathologies, in the association between lifestyle and cognition proximate to death.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study used data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a longitudinal clinical-pathologic study with autopsy data from 1997 to 2022 and up to 24 years of follow-up.

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Background: Cardiovascular risk burden is associated with dementia risk and neurodegeneration-related brain structure, while the role of genetics and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclear.

Aims: To examine the association of overall cardiovascular risk burden with the risk of major dementia subtypes and volumes of related brain regions in a large sample, and to explore the role of genetics and CVD onset.

Methods: A prospective study among 354 654 participants free of CVD and dementia (2006-2010, mean age 56.

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Background And Objectives: To examine the association of whole grain consumption and longitudinal change in global cognition, perceptual speed, and episodic memory by different race/ethnicity.

Methods: We included 3,326 participants from the Chicago Health and Aging Project who responded to a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), with 2 or more cognitive assessments. Global cognition was assessed using a composite score of episodic memory, perceptual speed, and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE).

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Background: The association of different types of tocopherols (vitamin E) with cognition might vary by the APOEɛ4 allele status.

Objective: We examined the association of dietary tocopherols with cognitive decline among participants with and without the APOEɛ4 allele over a median of 12 years.

Methods: 2,193 participants from the Chicago Health and Aging Project were included in the analyses.

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Background: Total tau (t-tau), neurofilament light (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) are neuronal cytoskeletal biomarkers that may indicate greater risk of poor outcomes in age-related conditions, including mortality. Health disparities experienced by some racial minority subgroups may influence biomarker expression and effects on longevity. We aimed to examine (a) associations of serum t-tau, NfL, and GFAP with overall and cardiovascular mortality and (b) differences in associations by racial background.

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Background: We have limited evidence for the relationship of high sugar intake with dementia risk.

Objective: To determine whether high sugar intake is associated with an increased risk of dementia in community-dwelling older adultsMethods:This study included 789 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project (community-based longitudinal cohort study of older adults free of known dementia at enrollment), with annual clinical assessments and complete nutrient data (obtained by validated food frequency questionnaire). Clinical diagnosis of dementia is based on the criteria of the joint working group of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association.

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Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of cardiovascular health (CVH) with cognitive outcomes, including incident Alzheimer's dementia, rate of cognitive decline, and measures of brain injury and structure.

Methods: This study consisted of 1702 Black or African American and White participants living in the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and enrolled in the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a population-based cohort since 1993. CVH was based on seven risk factors, including diet, physical activity, body mass index, smoking, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes.

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Background: Findings from observational studies suggest that dietary patterns may offer protective benefits against cognitive decline, but data from clinical trials are limited. The Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, known as the MIND diet, is a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, with modifications to include foods that have been putatively associated with a decreased risk of dementia.

Methods: We performed a two-site, randomized, controlled trial involving older adults without cognitive impairment but with a family history of dementia, a body-mass index (the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) greater than 25, and a suboptimal diet, as determined by means of a 14-item questionnaire, to test the cognitive effects of the MIND diet with mild caloric restriction as compared with a control diet with mild caloric restriction.

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Introduction: This study estimates the prevalence and number of people living with Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia in 50 US states and 3142 counties.

Methods: We used cognitive data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a population-based study, and combined it with the National Center for Health Statistics 2020 bridged-race population estimates to determine the prevalence of AD in adults ≥65 years.

Results: A higher prevalence of AD was estimated in the east and southeastern regions of the United States, with the highest in Maryland (12.

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Importance: Dementia threatens the well-being of older adults, making efforts toward prevention of great importance.

Objective: To evaluate the association of the Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet with the risk of dementia in 3 prospective studies and a meta-analysis.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Cohort analyses included the Whitehall II study (WII), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort (FOS), and the meta-analysis included 11 cohort studies.

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Background And Objectives: Diet may reduce Alzheimer dementia risk and slow cognitive decline, but the understanding of the relevant neuropathologic mechanisms remains limited. The association of dietary patterns with Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology has been suggested using neuroimaging biomarkers. This study examined the association of Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) and Mediterranean dietary patterns with β-amyloid load, phosphorylated tau tangles, and global AD pathology in postmortem brain tissue of older adults.

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Neurofilament light chain (NfL), a neuron-specific protein, has been related to several neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, elevated levels of NfL have also been observed in patients admitted to the hospital for stroke, suggesting that NfL as a biomarker may extend well beyond neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, using data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), a population-based cohort study, we prospectively investigated the association of serum NfL levels with incident stroke and brain infarcts.

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Objective: We aimed to determine whether combining white matter hyperintensity (WMH) with neurofilament light chain (NfL) could provide additional information for cognition in older adults.

Methods: Utilizing data from the population-based Chicago Health and Aging Project, we studied 701 individuals with both biomarkers and cognitive data during the follow-up period. NfL was measured using an ultrasensitive immunoassay, single-molecule array technology.

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Background And Objectives: Previous research has examined the association between cognition and flavonoids: bioactives found in foods, known to possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. We extend this research by investigating associations of dietary intakes of total flavonols and constituents (kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin, and isorhamnetin) on the change in cognitive performance in global cognition, episodic memory, semantic memory, visuospatial ability, perceptual speed, and working memory.

Methods: The study was conducted using 961 participants (aged 60-100 years) of the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a prospective cohort of community-dwelling Chicagoans who were followed for an average of 6.

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Copper is an essential micronutrient for brain health and dyshomeostasis of copper could have a pathophysiological role in Alzheimer's disease (AD), however, there are limited data from community-based samples. In this study, we investigate the association of brain copper (assessed using ICP-MS in four regions -inferior temporal, mid-frontal, anterior cingulate, and cerebellum) and dietary copper with cognitive decline and AD pathology burden (a quantitative summary of neurofibrillary tangles, diffuse and neuritic plaques in multiple brain regions) at autopsy examination among deceased participants (N = 657; age of death: 90.2(±6.

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