Nonpharmacological treatment for older adults with mild cognitive impairment: Considerations for culturally informed clinical practice and research.

Objective: Numerous nonpharmacological treatments (NPTs) have been developed for older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Two forms of cognition-focused NPTs, cognitive rehabilitation (CR) and cognitive training (CT), demonstrate cognitive benefit, but limitations remain regarding the contribution of cultural and demographic factors to study outcome heterogeneity, generalizability to diverse populations, and feasibility. This article aimed to review demographic and culturally informed NPTs and provides recommendations for culturally informed clinical practice and research.

Virtual Assessment as a Way to Reduce Help-seeking Barriers in Older Adults With Subjective Cognitive Decline.

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a potential early marker for neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease, is common among older adults. Although it is often regarded as a personal health concern, most individuals with SCD do not seek help from a health care professional. Help-seeking (HS) is a complex, individualized process with significant life-course implications, and older adults often face several barriers to HS across personal, socioeconomic, and cultural domains.

Education as a Moderator of Help Seeking Behavior in Subjective Cognitive Decline.

Objective: Disparities in Alzheimer disease (AD) and differences in help seeking (HS) across sociodemographic groups warrant public health concern. Research addressing such disparities must shift toward the earliest clinical manifestations of AD to optimize diagnosis, intervention and care planning. Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a risk state for AD, provides an important context in which to examine sociodemographic-related disparities in HS.

Examining the Role of Aging Perceptions in Subjective Cognitive Decline.

Objective: While subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is gaining ground as a "preclinical" risk state for Alzheimer disease, its utility depends on our understanding of the factors linked to SCD. Rarely examined sociocultural factors including perceptions of aging may relate to the subjective experience of cognitive aging. Identifying such associations will help to refine the utility of SCD as an early marker of AD while setting the stage for addressing modifiable factors contributing to SCD.

Optimizing Subjective Cognitive Decline to Detect Early Cognitive Dysfunction.

Background: The utility of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) as an indicator of preclinical AD is overshadowed by its inconsistent association with objective cognition.

Objective: This study examines if manipulations of SCD measurement affect its association with early cognitive dysfunction characteristic of preclinical AD.

Methods: Cognitively healthy older adults (n = 110) completed SCD questionnaires that elicited complaints in general, compared to 5 years ago (retrospective SCD) and compared to their peers (age-anchored SCD) in binary and Likert scales.

Cognitive tests aid in clinical differentiation of Alzheimer's disease versus Alzheimer's disease with Lewy body disease: Evidence from a pathological study.

Introduction: Clinical differentiation between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD with Lewy body disease (LBD) is relatively imprecise. The current study examined pathologically confirmed group differences in neuropsychological functioning, and the classification ability of specific tests.

Methods: Fifty-one participants with postmortem diagnoses of AD (n = 34) and AD plus LBD (n = 17) were drawn from the Predictors Study.

Reduced Awareness of Memory Deficit is Associated With Increased Medicare Home Health Care Use in Dementia.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine whether reduced awareness of memory deficits in individuals with dementia is associated with more frequent need for Medicare home health care services.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted in a multicenter, clinic-based cohort. In total, 192 participants diagnosed with dementia and their informants were independently asked whether or not the participant demonstrated cognitive symptoms of dementia related to memory and word-finding.

Cortical thickness and metacognition in cognitively diverse older adults.

Objective: Metacognition, or the ability to accurately identify, appraise, and monitor one's deficits, is commonly impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Poor metacognition prevents correct appraisal of a range of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms and facilitates anosognosia, which has important clinical implications for individuals (e.g.

Assessing Dependency in a Multiethnic Community Cohort of Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease.

Background And Objectives: Clinic-based studies of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have demonstrated the value of assessing dependence when characterizing patients' functional status. The Dependence Scale, a validated tool to assess level of caregiving needs, is associated with markers of disease severity, cost, and progression, while offering independent functional information about patients. This study examines whether such associations between the Dependence Scale and markers of disease severity demonstrated in clinical cohorts are similarly exhibited in a multiethnic community population of individuals with AD.

Self-report depressive symptoms are dissociated from tremor severity in essential tremor.

Background: Depressive symptoms are associated with essential tremor (ET). However, the relationship between cognitive, functional, and motor measures with depressive symptoms in ET is not yet understood.

Methods: The following measures were cross-sectionally assessed in a group of 223 subjects with ET: the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) Scale, the Lawton Independent Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Scale, a neurologist assessment of tremor severity, and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).

Increased Reporting Accuracy of Alzheimer Disease Symptoms in Caribbean Hispanic Informants.

Introduction: Informant report of symptoms is essential for diagnosing and characterizing Alzheimer disease (AD). Differences in the perception and experience of dementia across ethnicities may influence informant report. Understanding such differences is critical given that among those with AD, Hispanics are disproportionately affected.

Awareness of cognitive impairment in individuals with essential tremor.

Objective: The extent to which individuals with ET who have clinically significant cognitive impairment are aware of their cognitive changes is unclear. Reduced awareness has important implications for everyday function and decision-making.

Methods: 150 individuals with ET (109 Normal Cognition (ET-NC group), and 30 with MCI and 11 dementia (ET-CI group)) completed self-ratings and objective assessments of memory, language, and executive functioning.

Racial Disparities in Cognitive Performance in Mid- and Late Adulthood: Analyses of Two Cohort Studies.

Objectives: To examine whether the attenuation of racial disparities observed in physical health outcomes at older ages can be extended to cognitive outcomes in mid- and late-life samples.

Design: Cross-sectional associations between race and cognitive functioning were examined as a function of age.

Setting: The National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) and the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP).

The Predictors study: Development and baseline characteristics of the Predictors 3 cohort.

Introduction: The Predictors study was designed to predict the length of time to major disease outcomes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Here, we describe the development of a new, Predictors 3, cohort.

Methods: Patients with prevalent or incident AD and individuals at-risk for developing AD were selected from the North Manhattan community and followed annually with instruments comparable to those used in the original two Predictors cohorts.