Search

Using data from population-based cohorts of older adults 65+ from six countries across three continents (N=6472), we aimed to (1) describe and (2) identify predictors of usual and rapid gait speed from studies participating in the Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium (COSMIC) collaboration. We investigated whether clinical (BMI, hypertension, stroke, APOE status), psychological (cognition, mood, general health) and behavioral factors (smoking, drinking, physical activity) predicted gait speed similarly across cohorts; we used regression models controlling for demographics. Unadjusted usual gait speed ranged from 0.52-1.09 m/s and rapid gait speed ranged from 1.20-1.68 m/s. Lower BMI and better cognitive function consistently predicted faster usual and rapid gait speed in all cohorts. These patterns were not attenuated by demographics. Other psychological and behavioral factors were less consistently associated with gait. Taken together, gait speed is variable across ethnogeographic regions, but the influence of cognitive on gait is remarkably consistent.

Objective: To synthesise international findings on the alcohol-dementia relationship and provide a cross-national comparison of the alcohol-dementia relationship with critical evidence for the relationship between alcohol use and dementia in under-studied populations. Design and setting: Individual participant data meta-analysis of 15 prospective epidemiological cohort studies from countries situated in five continents. Cox regression investigated the dementia risk associated with alcohol use. Sensitivity analyses compared lifetime abstainers with former drinkers, adjusted extensively for demographic and clinical characteristics, and assessed the competing risk of death. Participants: 24,472 community-dwelling individuals without a history of dementia at baseline and at least one follow-up dementia assessment. Main outcome measure: All-cause dementia as determined by clinical interview. Results: During 151,574 person-years of follow-up, there were 2,137 incident cases of dementia (14.1 per 1,000 person-years). In the combined sample, when compared with occasional drinkers (

Background: A great interest has been generated concerning the topic of MCI recently. The mild cognitive impairment may be the most critical stage to introduce the preventive interventions for dementia. It is important to describe the health profile of MCI group to promote early detection of MCI and prevention to dementia. Some studies suggest that poor physical health might be involved in very early stage of cognitive impairment. The purposes of this study were to describe and compare demographic profile, comorbidity, and health habits of the older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: A descriptive design was utilized in this study. A total of 3,011 old adults aged 60 and over participated in the study, consisting of 2,017 female and 994 male who registered in the online database of the Seoul Metropolitan Center for Dementia. Data were analyzed using t-test and Chai-square tests were calculated to analyze the data.Results:Differences were existed according to age, gender, education, marital status, living arrangement, comorbidity such as hypertension, diabetes, and stroke and health habits including alcohol consumption and exercise. The participants with MCI were older, were more likely live alone and had lower education level. In addition, alcohol consumption and exercise were the risk factors for MCI in this study. Higher incidence of hypertension and strokes has been found in MCI group suggesting that vascular factors can be a risk factor for cognitive impairment. Conclusions: Healthy lifestyle could represent an important protective factor for cognitive deterioration in elderly population, thus, i t is suggested to develop management strategies and education program concerning health habits of MCI group as well as presentational approaches with demographic characteristics of the target groups. This study demonstrated that large community data can be useful for knowledge discovery for establishing strategies and policies for dementia. This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and future Planning (No. 2013R1A2A2A01069090).