Biomarkers.

Background: Recent research emphasizes the significance of white matter tracts and the free-water (FW) component in understanding cognitive decline. The goal of this study is to conduct a large-scale assessment on the role of white matter microstructure on longitudinal cognitive decline.

Method: This study used a cohort collated from seven longitudinal cohorts of aging (ADNI, BIOCARD, BLSA, NACC, ROS/MAP/MARS, VMAP, and WRAP).

Public Health.

Background: The Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study is an ongoing population-based prospective cohort study that began in 1994 and aims to identify risk and preventive factors for dementia. ACT randomly selects and enrolls Kaiser Permanente Washington (KPWA) health plan members age ≥ 65 years. Historically, the cohort make up has been 88% non-Hispanic White participants.

Public Health.

Background: Understanding the dynamics of markers throughout Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression in a representative population is critical for early detection of AD. Most existing studies used a single cohort to model the dynamics of AD-related markers, which may lead to biased and unreproducible results. The Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project Phenotype Harmonization Consortium (ADSP-PHC) harmonized rich endophenotype data across multiple cohort studies, providing valuable resources for ADRD research.

Public Health.

Background: Anticholinergic medication use has been found to be associated with higher dementia risk and cognitive decline in older adults. The presence of a biologic pathway through changes to white matter hyperintensities (WMH) remains unclear.

Method: We used the first clinically indicated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan from each participant in the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study-a prospective cohort study within Kaiser Permanente Washington (KPWA)-collected between January 2003 and March 2020 from participants ≥65 years old and with ≥10 years of continuous KPWA enrollment prior to the scan.

Public Health.

Background: Greater occupational complexity may be protective against dementia in later life, but it is unclear if it contributes to cognitive resilience and whether different aspects of occupational complexity are associated with resilience. We examined relationships between occupational complexity related to data, people, and things, and cognitive resilience to neurodegeneration.

Method: 1,699 participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort who were aged ≥60 years, had a plasma total tau (t-tau) measure (a marker of neurodegeneration), and a neuropsychological (NP) exam visit within five years of the plasma t-tau measurement were included.