Healthy Aging: The effects of Parenthood and APOE Genotype on Cognitive Decline
Description: Parenthood is a dramatic life transformation that has profound effects on the brain however this has mostly been studied in the short term (during pregnancy and postpartum) and in females. In the long term, multiple pregnancies increase risk for conditions like Alzheimer's disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Females who have had multiple pregnancies are a higher risk of developing dementia, show worse brain pathological symptoms and an earlier onset of Alzheimer's disease. This suggests that fundamental aspects of female physiology and life experiences contribute to the disease. Females that have not had any children show better memory in middle age compared to females that have had children but not all studies agree. Factors such as genes (APOE, a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease) and female specific factors such as age of menopause, sex of the fetus, and hormone therapies can affect cognition. On the other hand, in the short-term, males show changes in hormones and brain structure in response to fatherhood, but long-term changes on brain, disease and cognition have received very little attention. To better understand the effects of parenthood on cognition later in life, it is important to study large populations and take genes and female-specific factors into account. This study will investigate how parenthood and genes (APOE) along with sociological factors (age and education) affect cognition in older females and males using a large Canadian database (The Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging). These findings will advance our understanding of how parenthood influences brain aging and cognitive decline in older females and males. Isolating specific risk factors and incidence trends could have significant impact on future treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. This work will also address important and understudied physiological aspects of aging in females. We expect our findings will eventually lead to improved outcomes for all patients.
Amount: CA$69,570
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: Catalyst Grant: Analysis of Canadian Longitudinal Study in Aging (CLSA) Data
Start date: 2020-03-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Investigator: Liisa Galea
Institution: University of British Columbia
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 170296_1
OpenAlex ID: G330575385