Latent Growth Curve Models of Cognitive Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究采用潜在增长曲线（LGC）建模策略，采用结构方程框架来研究老年认知表现轨迹的个体内变化及其相关因素，特别是年龄，教育，健康以及身体和感觉功能。拟议的工作明确侧重于以下目标：在全国有代表性的老年人口样本中，利用对认知能力的横向和纵向评估，确认各种心理能力随年龄下降的模式;为了确定认知功能的横截面年龄差异在多大程度上是由于群体相关因素造成的，如教育水平，或其他与年龄有关的现象，例如，共病和感觉功能;使用长达7年的时间段的纵向数据，评估认知功能的几项指标以及年龄相关协变量（如共病、其他社会和身体功能以及感觉功能）的年龄相关个体内轨迹;评估与年龄相关的感觉障碍和健康下降的程度，以解释中年人衰老和认知功能之间的联系，老年人和老年人，教育和合并症净额;并评估老年人的认知下降模式及其协变量如何因性别和种族/民族而异。 我们使用两个创新的具有全国代表性的中年和老年人小组调查来调查这些问题：原始HRS（健康和退休研究）对退休前51-61岁的男性和女性进行的全国小组研究，1992年进行了评估（n= 9 824），并于1994年、1996年、1998年和2000年再次进行了访谈，与之平行的AHEAD（老年人资产和健康动态研究）国家小组研究，该研究于1993年采访了70岁及以上的成年人（n= 7，443），并于1995年，1998年和2000年再次采访。我们设计的关键要素使我们能够：（1）推广到使用概率方法抽样的中年和老年人的全国人口;（2）评估研究过程中出生队列之间的差异;（3）评估人口中基于年龄的年龄变化，以估计个体内变化的性质和形状;（4）评估个体内变化的个体间和群组间差异;（5）使用面板设计的多群组特征构建基于加速年龄的变化的合成群组模型;（6）评估固定协变量和适当滞后的时变协变量对年龄相关变化中个体差异的影响;（7）评估样本损耗和/或死亡率问题引入的这些老化函数中的偏倚程度。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research applies strategies of latent growth curve (LGC) modeling with a structural equation framework to examine intra-individual change in trajectories of cognitive performance in old age and its correlates, particularly age, education, health, and physical and sensory functioning. The proposed work focuses explicitly on the following objectives: to confirm patterns of decline with age across a broad spectrum of mental abilities using both crosssectional and longitudinal assessments of cognitive performance in nationally representative samples of the older population; to ascertain the extent to which cross-sectional age-differences in cognitive functioning are spuriously due to cohort-related factors, such as level of schooling, or other age-related phenomena, e.g., comorbidity and sensory functioning; to assess the age-related intra-individual trajectories of several measures of cognitive functioning as well as age-linked covariates such as comorbidity, other social and physical functioning, and sensory functioning using longitudinal data over periods of time of up to seven years; to assess the extent to which age-related declines in sensory impairment and health explain the link between aging and cognitive functioning in middle-aged and older adults, net of education and comorbidity; and to assess how patterns of cognitive decline and its covariates differ by sex and race/ethnicity in older adults. We investigate these issues using two innovative nationally-representative panel surveys of middle-aged and older adults: the original HRS (Health and Retirement Study) national panel study of preretirement men and women aged 51-61 assessed in 1992 (n=9,824) and reinterviewed in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2000, and the parallel AHEAD (Study of Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old) national panel study which interviewed adults aged 70 and above in 1993 (n=7,443) and reinterviewed in 1995, 1998 and 2000. The key elements of our design allow us to: (1) generalize to a national population of middle-aged and older individuals sampled using probability methods; (2) assess differences between birth cohorts in the processes studied; (3) assess occasion-based age changes in the population to estimate the nature and shape of intra-individual change; (4) assess inter-individual and inter-cohort differences in intra-individual change; (5) build synthetic cohort models of accelerated age-based change using the multiple cohort feature of the panel design; (6) assess the effects of fixed covariates and appropriately lagged timevarying covariates on individual differences in age-related change; and (7) assess the extent of bias in these aging functions introduced by problems of sample attrition and/or mortality.