The National Institute on Aging (NIA) awarded a $319,000 Project Grant (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) to Brown University to identify the pace of normative cognitive aging in adults and how much faster cognitive aging occurs in individuals with Alzheimer's disease or related dementias (AD/ADRD).
The 2-year project will utilize data from the Children of the Depression (CODA) cohort of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to: 1) develop a latent variable model of overall cognitive performance, 2) quantify the rate of normative cognitive aging in standard deviations per year, and 3) determine how much quicker cognitive aging occurs among individuals diagnosed with AD/ADRD during the study follow-up. Sensitivity analyses will also examine cognitive aging by specific domains. This research aims to establish a nationally representative reference point for evaluating cognitive aging in future studies.