Publications by authors named "Kaarin Anstey"
Background: Fall injuries resulting from trips are a major health concern. Virtual reality (VR) offers an effective way of training obstacle avoidance while walking due to its ability to provide safe and meaningful real-time feedback during rehabilitation. This proof-of-concept study examined the benefit of providing physical feedback during obstacle avoidance gait training using VR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImpact of Childhood Adversity on Late-Life Cognition in Older Puerto Rican Adults.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
December 2024
Objectives: This study examined the association between childhood adversity and late-life cognitive outcomes among older Puerto Rican adults.
Methods: Data were from the PREHCO study, a population-based cohort of 3,713 older Puerto Rican adults (mean age 72.5 years; 60% female).
Article Synopsis
- - A long-term study in Norway tracked 9,745 individuals for 30 years to explore how midlife depression and anxiety might influence the risk of developing dementia.
- - The research found that individuals who later developed dementia showed higher rates of anxiety and depression throughout the study, with a notable increase especially in the years leading up to their dementia diagnosis.
- - The results indicated that mixed anxiety and depressive symptoms were more prevalent in older individuals with dementia, suggesting a significant link between mental health issues in midlife and subsequent dementia risk across various types of dementia.
Objectives: Deterioration in vision is an important dementia risk factor yet few studies have examined objectively measured changes in visual acuity over time. Visual decline may also reduce social engagement, highlighting the need to examine visual changes in concert with broader social function.
Method: The relationship between change in visual acuity (logMAR) and cognitive decline was examined in 2,281 participants from the PATH study using hierarchical linear regression.
Background And Objectives: Sex and gender are important topics of increasing interest in aging and dementia research. Few studies have jointly examined sex (as a biological attribute) and gender (as a sociocultural and behavioral characteristic) within a single study. We explored a novel data mining approach to include both sex and gender as potentially related influences in memory aging research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Current estimates of dementia and Alzheimer's disease incidence and prevalence are required to understand the health needs of the elderly.
Objective: We used two Australia cohort studies, administrative datasets, and data linkage techniques to estimate dementia rates in Australia.
Methods: The study used Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health and the Health in Men Cohort Study.
Background: We aimed to develop risk tools for dementia, stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and diabetes, for adults aged ≥ 65 years using shared risk factors.
Methods: Data were obtained from 10 population-based cohorts (N = 41,755) with median follow-up time (years) for dementia, stroke, MI, and diabetes of 6.2, 7.
Regional health priorities for dementia: a roadmap for the Western Pacific.
Lancet Reg Health West Pac
September 2024
Article Synopsis
- * Most countries in the region lack specific national dementia plans and awareness campaigns, leading to inadequate resources for treatment and support.
- * To address these issues, comprehensive national plans are necessary, focusing on improving dementia literacy, training caregivers, mobilizing resources, and enhancing research capabilities, while involving input from affected individuals and families.
Article Synopsis
- Poststroke cognitive impairment is common, but the exact changes in cognitive function following a first stroke compared to pre-stroke levels are not fully understood.
- The study aimed to track cognitive performance over time in stroke survivors versus individuals without strokes, using data from 14 international cohorts of older adults.
- Results showed that incident stroke led to a significant immediate drop in overall cognitive skills and accelerated decline in cognitive abilities over time.
Objectives: Interpersonal relevancy appraisals are a dynamic and understudied aspect of human social cognition. Despite their importance, there are no existing measures. This study developed and validated a new measure of self-perceived interpersonal threat, opportunity, and invisibility appraisals among a life-course sample of adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Promising evidence is emerging for the procognitive, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties of dietary flavonoids, particularly anthocyanins that provide red, purple and blue plant pigments.
Methods And Analysis: The 'Food for Thought' study is a multicentre, 6-month randomised, parallel 3-arm clinical trial. Its primary aim is to investigate whether anthocyanin consumption, either through diet or supplementation, can prevent memory loss progression and improve inflammatory and cardiovascular health in older adults at risk for dementia.
Introduction: Dietary nitrate is potentially beneficial for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and nervous systems due to its role as a nitric oxide (NO) precursor. Increased nitrate intake improves cardiovascular health and therefore could protect against dementia, given the cardiovascular-dementia link.
Objective: To investigate the association between source-dependent nitrate intake and dementia-related mortality.
Background: Urban neighbourhood environments may impact older adults' cognitive health. However, longitudinal studies examining key environmental correlates of cognitive health are lacking. We estimated cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of neighbourhood built and natural environments and ambient air pollution with multiple cognitive health outcomes in Australian urban dwellers aged 60+ years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study aims to enhance road safety among older drivers by evaluating three behavioral interventions: an online road-rules workshop, tailored driving feedback, and personalized driving lessons.
- A randomized controlled trial will involve 198 urban drivers aged 65 and older, focusing on those identified as moderately unsafe through an on-road test.
- The study, approved by the ethics committee at the University of New South Wales, seeks to contribute actionable insights to improve safety and influence health policies, with results shared in academic journals and conferences.
Article Synopsis
- Previous studies suggest that using antihypertensive medication in older adults may lower the overall risk of dementia, but the effects on different types of dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD), are still uncertain.
- This research analyzed data from over 31,000 participants across multiple countries, focusing on how history of hypertension and blood pressure levels impact the risk of developing AD and non-AD types of dementia.
- The findings indicated that untreated hypertension significantly increases the risk of developing AD and non-AD dementia compared to healthy individuals, while treated hypertension showed a similar risk for non-AD but not a significant difference between treated and untreated groups.
Aims: To quantify rates of dementia treatment and death among Australians with type 2 diabetes relative to those without diabetes using linked national registries of Australia.
Methods: The study included 891,418 people with type 2 diabetes registered on the National Diabetes Services Scheme and a randomly sampled, population-based comparison group (n = 1,131,369). Outcomes included dementia death (all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD) or vascular dementia), and first prescription of cholinesterase inhibitors or memantine.
Sex and gender-biological and social constructs-significantly impact the prevalence of protective and risk factors, influencing the burden of Alzheimer's disease (AD; amyloid beta and tau) and other pathologies (e.g., cerebrovascular disease) which ultimately shape cognitive trajectories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study aims to identify the relationship between psychosocial factors and unmet needs among community-dwelling older adults who have received or who expect to receive formal home-based aged care services.
Methods: A subsample of the national Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers was used to examine the prevalence of having any unmet needs among older adults navigating care. We also examined associations between older adults' psychosocial factors and their unmet needs using logistic regression.
Objectives: To examine relationships between visual function (ie, contrast sensitivity, visual field, color vision, and motion perception) and cognitive impairment, including any definition of "cognitive impairment," mild cognitive impairment, or dementia.
Design: Systematic review and meta-analyses.
Setting And Participants: Any settings; participants with (cases) or without (controls) cognitive impairment.
Background: More than 57 million people have dementia worldwide. Evidence indicates a change in dementia prevalence and incidence in high-income countries, which is likely to be due to improved life-course population health. Identifying key modifiable risk factors for dementia is essential for informing risk reduction and prevention strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- A study involving 7,801 older adults examined the connection between fruit and vegetable consumption and the development of depression, finding that higher fruit intake was linked to a lower risk of depression.
- Over a follow-up period of 3 to 9 years, 21% of participants developed depression, with fruit intake showing a significant protective effect, while vegetable intake did not show a notable association.
- The authors noted limitations due to varied measurement methods and the relatively modest sample size, suggesting further research is needed on fruit and vegetable consumption in larger, more standardized studies among older adults in low- and middle-income countries.
Background: Digital dementia risk reduction interventions are cost-effective and scalable. However, it is unknown how they are perceived by people already experiencing cognitive concerns or decline.
Objective: To understand the current use, interest, and preferences for online learning courses and interest in learning about factors influencing brain health and dementia risk among adults ≥45.
Article Synopsis
- This study looked at how gender affects the relationship between skills from work (occupation), education, and the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in older people in Australia.
- It found that men are more affected by their job skills compared to women when it comes to the risk of MCI.
- For both men and women, engaging in more leisure activities and having better verbal intelligence helped reduce the risk of developing MCI, even more than education or job skills.