Public Health.

Background: Personality traits, namely higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness, are predictive of dementia, although the complex relationship has yet to be fully explained. With >60 years of prospectively collected data, the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) provides a unique opportunity to thoroughly evaluate this association in a population-based randomly selected cohort. Using a gold-standard diagnostic approach to characterize dementia prevalence, we leverage life course WLS data to examine the association between mid-life personality traits and late-life dementia risk.

Biomarkers.

Background: Mobile phlebotomy is an attractive option for the study of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in rural and underserved populations, but logistics of collecting, and shipping these samples outside clinical settings can introduce additional sources of variability. Knowledge is limited on the impact of field collection on blood-based Alzheimer's disease biomarkers, especially protein stability when dry ice is not available during shipping. Our study looks into the effects of holding plasma samples under refrigeration prior to freezing on AD biomarker concentrations compared to samples that were frozen within one hour of collection as is standard practice.

Investigation of a SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Variant Cluster - Nebraska, November-December 2021.

The B.1.1.

Assessing Dementia Prevalence in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study: Cohort Profile, Protocol, and Preliminary Findings.

Background: There is growing consensus that non-genetic determinants of dementia can be linked to various risk- and resiliency-enhancing factors accumulating throughout the lifespan, including socioeconomic conditions, early life experiences, educational attainment, lifestyle behaviors, and physical/mental health. Yet, the causal impact of these diverse factors on dementia risk remain poorly understood due to few longitudinal studies prospectively characterizing these influences across the lifespan.

Objective: The Initial Lifespan's Impact on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ILIAD) study aims to characterize dementia prevalence in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a 60-year longitudinal study documenting life course trajectories of educational, family, occupational, psychological, cognitive, and health measures.