Health behaviors over the adult lifecourse and cognitive aging
Description: Relevance Continuing increases in life expectancy come in tandem with knowledge that the prevalence of dementia rises with age, doubling every 4-5 years after the age of 60. By age 80 over one third of the population is likely to be living with dementia; for industrialized countries an unprecedented challenge in terms of care provision. Although dementia generally occurs late in life, it is increasingly recognized that there is a long preclinical phase, making the evaluation of risk factors prior to and during this phase a crucial next step in the battle to prevent or delay the onset of dementia. Driven by this "long" view of dementia our research focuses on the determinants of heterogeneity in cognitive aging starting from early midlife. Existing research suggests an association between health behaviors and cognitive aging; smoking, alcohol, physical activity and nutrition have all been found to be associated with poor cognitive function and dementia. What remains unknown is the extent to which these behaviors, acting in combination, determine cognitive aging trajectories. In public health terms, why is this knowledge so important? Because these behaviors are likely to be 'the' key risk factors for dementia that are both modifiable and amenable to low-cost intervention at the national level. In research terms, the unique feature of this proposal is three repeat assessments of cognitive function using a comprehensive test battery with a first assessment carried out in early midlife allowing an examination of the inflection point in changes in cognitive functioning.
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: R01
Start date: 2009-09-30
End date: 2015-08-31
Investigator: MIKA J KIVIMAKI
Institution: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Funded outputs count: 384
Funder award ID: R01AG034454
OpenAlex ID: G2465716466