The utility of recruitment incentives in early Alzheimer's disease trials.

Introduction: Amid recent approvals, early Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains an active area of treatment development.

Methods: We performed a conjoint experiment to compare preferences among 26 patients with mild cognitive impairment for four trial features including designs incorporating active aducanumab-control (vs. placebo), returning tau positron emission tomography (PET) results (vs.

Post-disclosure distress among racial and ethnic groups in a preclinical AD trial.

Introduction: Trialists need a thorough understanding of whether reactions to Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarker information differ among racial and ethnic groups in preclinical AD trials.

Methods: We used data from the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease Study to analyze cognitively unimpaired participants' responses on the Impact of Event Scale (IES) 24 to 72 hours after amyloid disclosure. We fit a linear regression model to test whether mean IES scores differed among participants from specific racial and ethnic groups.

Apolipoprotein E Genetic Testing in a New Age of Alzheimer Disease Clinical Practice.

The recent FDA approval of amyloid-lowering drugs is changing the landscape of Alzheimer disease (AD) clinical practice. Previously, genetic testing was not recommended in the care of people with AD because of limited clinical utility. With the advent of amyloid-lowering drugs, genotype will play an important role in guiding treatment recommendations.

Estimating attrition in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment clinical trials.

Background: Participant retention is a key factor that affects clinical trial integrity. Trial protocols estimate attrition as a function of sample size calculations. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an area of active treatment development.

Recruitment across two decades of NIH-funded Alzheimer's disease clinical trials.

Background: Timely accrual of a representative sample is a key factor in whether Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials successfully answer the scientific questions under study. Studies in other fields have observed that, over time, recruitment to trials has become increasingly reliant on larger numbers of sites, with declines in the average per-site recruitment rate. Here, we examined the trends in recruitment over a 20-year period of NIH-funded AD clinical trials conducted by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), a temporally consistent network of sites devoted to interventional research.

Effect of Aducanumab Approval on Willingness to Participate in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease Trials.

Background: Clinical trials now test promising therapies in the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Participant willingness to enroll in different types of preclinical AD trials is understudied and whether the FDA approval of aducanumab affected these attitudes is unknown.

Objective: To evaluate preferences toward three preclinical AD trial scenarios and whether the FDA approval of aducanumab changed willingness to participate among potential trial participants.

Strategies Associated with Retaining Participants in the Longitudinal National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set Study.

Background: Best approaches for retaining research participants in Alzheimer's disease cohort studies are understudied.

Objective: Using data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set, we evaluated the associations of unique strategies with participant retention across Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers and explored potential effect modification by race, ethnicity and diagnostic group.

Methods: We examined retention at the first follow-up visit among participants enrolled during 2015-2017.

Disparities by Race and Ethnicity Among Adults Recruited for a Preclinical Alzheimer Disease Trial.

Importance: Underrepresentation of many racial/ethnic groups in Alzheimer disease (AD) clinical trials limits generalizability of results and hinders opportunities to examine potential effect modification of candidate treatments.

Objective: To examine racial and ethnic differences in recruitment methods and trial eligibility in a multisite preclinical AD trial.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study analyzed screening data from the Anti-Amyloid in Asymptomatic AD study, collected from April 2014 to December 2017.

The best COVID-19 predictor is recent smell loss: a cross-sectional study.

Background: COVID-19 has heterogeneous manifestations, though one of the most common symptoms is a sudden loss of smell (anosmia or hyposmia). We investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19.

Methods: This preregistered, cross-sectional study used a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory illness.

More Than Smell-COVID-19 Is Associated With Severe Impairment of Smell, Taste, and Chemesthesis.

Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments, such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, and generally lacked quantitative measurements. Here, we report the development, implementation, and initial results of a multilingual, international questionnaire to assess self-reported quantity and quality of perception in 3 distinct chemosensory modalities (smell, taste, and chemesthesis) before and during COVID-19.

Aging Well: Using Precision to Drive Down Costs and Increase Health Quality.

Efforts to provide patients with individualized treatments have led to tremendous breakthroughs in healthcare. However, a precision medicine approach alone will not offset the rapid increase in prevalence and burden of chronic non-communicable illnesses that is continuing to pervade the world's aging population. With rapid advances in technology, it is now possible to collect digital metrics to assess, monitor and detect chronic disease indicators, much earlier in the disease course, potentially redefining what was previously considered asymptomatic to pre-symptomatic.

A meta-analysis of probiotic efficacy for gastrointestinal diseases.

Background: Meta-analyses on the effects of probiotics on specific gastrointestinal diseases have generally shown positive effects on disease prevention and treatment; however, the relative efficacy of probiotic use for treatment and prevention across different gastrointestinal diseases, with differing etiology and mechanisms of action, has not been addressed.

Methods/principal Findings: We included randomized controlled trials in humans that used a specified probiotic in the treatment or prevention of Pouchitis, Infectious diarrhea, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Helicobacter pylori, Clostridium difficile Disease, Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea, Traveler's Diarrhea, or Necrotizing Enterocolitis. Random effects models were used to evaluate efficacy as pooled relative risks across the eight diseases as well as across probiotic species, single vs.