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）建模策略和结构方程框架来研究老年人认知表现轨迹的个体内部变化及其相关因素，特别是年龄、教育、健康、身体和感觉功能。建议的工作明确侧重于以下目标：在全国具有代表性的老年人口样本中，通过对认知表现的横断面和纵向评估，确认广泛的心理能力随年龄下降的模式；确定认知功能的横断面年龄差异在多大程度上是由群体相关因素（如受教育程度）或其他与年龄相关的现象（如共病和感觉功能）造成的；利用长达7年的纵向数据，评估与年龄相关的认知功能以及与年龄相关的协变量（如共病、其他社会和身体功能以及感觉功能）的几个测量指标的个体内部轨迹；评估与年龄相关的感觉障碍和健康下降在多大程度上解释了中老年人衰老与认知功能之间的联系，教育和合并症；并评估老年人认知能力下降的模式及其协变量在性别和种族/民族方面的差异。

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.