@article {11561,
	title = {A longitudinal study shows stress proliferation effects from early childhood adversity and recent stress on risk for depressive symptoms among older adults.},
	journal = {Aging \& Mental Health},
	volume = {26},
	year = {2022},
	pages = {870-880},
	abstract = {<p> We evaluated whether the effects of recent stressful life events (SLEs) and early childhood adversities (ECAs) on depressive symptoms are consistent between men and women and across older age, and whether there was evidence for the following: stress sensitization, whereby the psychological impact of SLEs is greater for individuals with ECAs compared with those without; or stress proliferation effect, whereby those with ECAs are more likely to report more SLEs than those without ECAs to effect depressive symptoms. ECAs, SLEs in the past two years, and current depressive symptoms through a modified CES-D were obtained from 11,873 individuals participating in a population representative study of older adults, yielding 82,764 observations. Mixed-effects regression models on depressive symptoms were constructed to control for multiple observations per participant and evaluate within-person effects over time, thereby reducing bias from reverse causation. Results suggest a stress proliferation effect and do not support stress sensitization. ECAs contribute to vulnerability for depressive symptoms, with a dosage effect for each additional ECA. Recent SLEs result in greater depressive symptom risk, with stable effects over age and dosage effects for each additional SLE that were smaller than the effects of ECAs among men, but not women. Belonging to an ethnic minority group, having less education, and less household income at baseline were associated with greater depressive symptom risk. Findings suggest the importance of addressing early childhood adversity and sociodemographic factors, among at-risk older adults to mitigate life-course stress proliferative processes and thereby reduce disparate risk for depression in older age.</p>},
	keywords = {adverse child events, depression, Mental Health, stress generation, Trauma},
	issn = {1364-6915},
	doi = {10.1080/13607863.2021.1904379},
	author = {Thalida E. Arpawong and Mekli, Krisztina and Lee, Jinkook and Drystan F. Phillips and Margaret Gatz and Carol A Prescott}
}
@article {11416,
	title = {The dynamic association between body mass index and cognition from midlife through late-life, and the effect of sex and genetic influences},
	journal = {Scientific Reports},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2021},
	pages = {7206},
	abstract = {Body mass index (BMI) is associated with cognitive abilities, but the nature of the relationship remains largely unexplored. We aimed to investigate the bidirectional relationship from midlife through late-life, while considering sex differences and genetic predisposition to higher BMI. We used data from 23,892 individuals of European ancestry from the Health and Retirement Study, with longitudinal data on BMI and three established cognitive indices: mental status, episodic memory, and their sum, called total cognition. To investigate the dynamic relationship between BMI and cognitive abilities, we applied dual change score models of change from age 50 through 89, with a breakpoint at age 65 or 70. Models were further stratified by sex and genetic predisposition to higher BMI using tertiles of a polygenic score for BMI (PGSBMI). We demonstrated bidirectional effects between BMI and all three cognitive indices, with higher BMI contributing to steeper decline in cognitive abilities in both midlife and late-life, and higher cognitive abilities contributing to less decline in BMI in late-life.\&amp;nbsp;The effects of BMI on change in cognitive abilities were more evident in men compared to women, and among those in the lowest tertile of the PGSBMI compared to those in the highest tertile, while the effects of cognition on BMI were similar across groups. In conclusion, these findings highlight a reciprocal relationship between BMI and cognitive abilities, indicating that the negative effects of a higher BMI persist from midlife through late-life, and that weight-loss in late-life may be driven by cognitive decline.},
	keywords = {Cognition, Epidemiology, Genetics, longitudinal, Obesity},
	isbn = {2693-5015},
	doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-186197/v1},
	author = {Ida Karlsson and Margaret Gatz and Thalida E. Arpawong and Anna K. Dahl Aslan and Chandra A Reynolds}
}
@article {10838,
	title = {Age-dependent effects of body mass index across the adult life span on the risk of dementia: a cohort study with a genetic approach},
	journal = {BMC medicine},
	volume = {18},
	year = {2020},
	abstract = {BACKGROUNDWhile a high body mass index (BMI) in midlife is associated with higher risk of dementia, high BMI in late-life may be associated with lower risk. This study combined genetic designs with longitudinal data to achieve a better understanding of this paradox.METHODSWe used longitudinal data from 22,156 individuals in the Swedish Twin Registry (STR) and 25,698 from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The STR sample had information about BMI from early adulthood through late-life, and the HRS sample from age 50 through late-life. Survival analysis was applied to investigate age-specific associations between BMI and dementia risk. To examine if the associations are influenced by genetic susceptibility to higher BMI, an interaction between BMI and a polygenic score for BMI (PGSBMI) was included in the models and results stratified into those with genetic predisposition to low, medium, and higher BMI. In the STR, co-twin control models were applied to adjust for familial factors beyond those captured by the PGSBMI.RESULTSAt age 35-49, 5 units higher BMI was associated with 15\% (95\% CI 7-24\%) higher risk of dementia in the STR. There was a significant interaction (p = 0.04) between BMI and the PGSBMI, and the association present only among those with genetic predisposition to low BMI (HR 1.38, 95\% CI 1.08-1.78). Co-twin control analyses indicated genetic influences. After age 80, 5 units higher BMI was associated with 10-11\% lower risk of dementia in both samples. There was a significant interaction between late-life BMI and the PGSBMI in the STR (p = 0.01), but not the HRS, with the inverse association present only among those with a high PGSBMI (HR 0.70, 95\% CI 0.52-0.94). No genetic influences were evident from co-twin control models of late-life BMI.CONCLUSIONSNot only does the association between BMI and dementia differ depending on age at BMI measurement, but also the effect of genetic influences. In STR, the associations were only present among those with a BMI in opposite direction of their genetic predisposition, indicating that the association between BMI and dementia across the life course might be driven by environmental factors and hence likely modifiable.},
	keywords = {Body Mass Index, Dementia, Index Medicus, Life span, longitudinal, Obesity paradox, polygenic score, Twin design},
	doi = {10.1186/s12916-020-01600-2},
	author = {Ida Karlsson and Lehto, Kelli and Margaret Gatz and Chandra A Reynolds and Anna K. Dahl Aslan}
}
@article {9260,
	title = {Genetic variants specific to aging-related verbal memory: Insights from GWASs in a population-based cohort.},
	journal = {PLoS One},
	volume = {12},
	year = {2017},
	month = {2017},
	pages = {e0182448},
	abstract = {Verbal memory is typically studied using immediate recall (IR) and delayed recall (DR) scores, although DR is dependent on IR capability. Separating these components may be useful for deciphering the genetic variation in age-related memory abilities. This study was conducted to (a) construct individual trajectories in IR and independent aspects of delayed recall, or residualized-DR (rDR), across older adulthood; and (b) identify genetic markers that contribute to four estimated phenotypes: IR and rDR levels and changes after age 60. A cognitively intact sample (N = 20,650 with 125,164 observations) was drawn from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative study of adults aged 50 and older. Mixed effects regression models were constructed using repeated measures from data collected every two years (1996-2012) to estimate level at age 60 and change in memory post-60 in IR and rDR. Genome-wide association scans (GWAS) were conducted in the genotypic subsample (N = 7,486) using ~1.2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). One SNP (rs2075650) in TOMM40 associated with rDR level at the genome-wide level (p = 5.0x10-08), an effect that replicated in an independent sample from the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing (N = 6,898 with 41,328 observations). Meta-analysis of rDR level confirmed the association (p = 5.0x10-11) and identified two others in TOMM40 (rs71352238 p = 1.0x10-10; rs157582 p = 7.0x10-09), and one in APOE (rs769449 p = 3.1 x10-12). Meta-analysis of IR change identified associations with three of the same SNPs in TOMM40 (rs157582 p = 8.3x10-10; rs71352238 p = 1.9x10-09) and APOE (rs769449 p = 2.2x10-08). Conditional analyses indicate GWAS signals on rDR level were driven by APOE, whereas signals on IR change were driven by TOMM40. Additionally, we found that TOMM40 had effects independent of APOE e4 on both phenotypes. Findings from this first U.S. population-based GWAS study conducted on both age-related immediate and delayed verbal memory merit continued examination in other samples and additional measures of verbal memory.},
	keywords = {Cognitive Ability, Genetics, GWAS, Memory},
	issn = {1932-6203},
	doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0182448},
	author = {Thalida E. Arpawong and Pendleton, Neil and Mekli, Krisztina and John J McArdle and Margaret Gatz and Armoskus, Chris and James A Knowles and Carol A Prescott}
}
@article {8599,
	title = {Validation of abridged mini-mental state examination scales using population-based data from Sweden and USA},
	journal = {European Journal of Ageing},
	volume = {14},
	year = {2017},
	month = {06/2017},
	pages = {199-205},
	abstract = {The objective of this study is to validate two abridged versions of the mini-mental state examination (MMSE): one intended for use in face-to-face interviews, and the other developed for telephonic interviews, using data from Sweden and the US to validate the abridged scales against dementia diagnoses as well as to compare their performance to that of the full MMSE scale. The abridged versions were based on eight domains from the original MMSE scale. The domains included in the MMSE-SF were registration, orientation, delayed recall, attention, and visual spatial ability. In the MMSE-SF-C, the visual spatial ability item was excluded, and instead, one additional orientation item was added. There were 794 participants from the Swedish HARMONY study [mean age 81.8 (4.8); the proportion of cognitively impaired was 51 \%] and 576 participants from the US ADAMS study [mean age 83.2 (5.7); the proportion of cognitively impaired was 65 \%] where it was possible to compare abridged MMSE scales to dementia diagnoses and to the full MMSE scale. We estimated the sensitivity and specificity levels of the abridged tests, using clinical diagnoses as reference. Analyses with both the HARMONY and the ADAMS data indicated comparable levels of sensitivity and specificity in detecting cognitive impairment for the two abridged scales relative to the full MMSE. Receiver operating characteristic curves indicated that the two abridged scales corresponded well to those of the full MMSE. The two abridged tests have adequate validity and correspond well with the full MMSE. The abridged versions could therefore be alternatives to consider in larger population studies where interview length is restricted, and the respondent burden is high.},
	keywords = {Cognitive Ability, Cross-National, Older Adults},
	issn = {1613-9372},
	doi = {10.1007/s10433-016-0394-z},
	url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10433-016-0394-z},
	author = {Ericsson, Malin Christina and Margaret Gatz and K{\r a}reholt, Ingemar and Parker, Marti G. and Fors, Stefan}
}
