Integrative Analysis of Change in Cognition and Health

描述(由申请者提供)：该研究计划侧重于认知和健康中与衰老相关的变化，并在健康和与健康相关的变化(即发病率、合并症)的背景下解释认知变化。一个关键的目标是确定除了按时间顺序年龄(即简单的时间流逝)之外的其他变化过程，这些变化过程解释了认知功能的群体和个人水平的变化。将通过详细考虑健康指标(发病率和合并症)的人内变化和死亡前的变化模式来确定变化过程。对理论的贡献包括集中关注健康作为与老龄化相关的变化的原因，以及社会人口和心理社会影响在预测健康变化和缓和健康与认知联系方面的作用。采用个人视角，将对认知衰老的心理学理论(速度和感觉调节，共同原因)进行强有力的测试，这些理论主要是基于年龄差异而开发的。方法论特征包括根据死亡率选择对确定的老年个体群体进行推断、相关和耦合变化的多变量分析、变化点的估计以及跨国推广。该项目汇集了21项关于老龄化的纵向研究的多学科研究团队。协调和协作的方法对老龄化、健康和认知的综合理解将导致从这些纵向研究中获得显著的知识，并允许识别和协调在测量、采样、人口、社会和健康指标方面在研究中发现的差异。这种广泛的合作具有广泛的多学科专业知识和跨学科兴趣。在制定分析方案时保持视角的多样性，确保结果的概括性和评价结果对有关测量协调、分析和理论模型选择的决定的敏感性，同时使每项研究的数据价值最大化。这项研究计划的发现将为预防和干预工作提供基础，并通过确定与发病率和共病相关的发病前和发病后的变化，以及这些变化的社会人口和心理社会调节因素，为卫生政策提供信息。通过及早识别预示随后功能丧失和死亡的变化点，将加强潜在的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This program of research focuses on aging-related changes in cognition and health, and in explaining cognitive change in the context of health and health-related change (i.e., morbidity, comorbidity). A key objective is to identify processes of change other than chronological age (i.e., simple passage of time) that account for population and individual-level change in cognitive functions. Identification of processes of change will proceed through detailed consideration of within-person change in health indicators (morbidity and comorbidity) and patterns of change prior to death. Contributions to theory include focused attention on health as a causal factor in aging-related changes and the role of sociodemographic and psychosocial influences in predicting changes in health and moderating the health-cognitive link. Using a within-person perspective, strong tests will be made of psychological theories of cognitive aging (speed and sensory mediation, common cause), developed primarily on the basis of age differences. Methodological features include inference to defined populations of aging individuals conditional on mortality-selection, multivariate analysis of correlated and coupled change, estimation of change-points, and cross-national generalizability. This project brings together multidisciplinary teams of investigators from 21 longitudinal studies on aging. A coordinated and collaborative approach to the integrative understanding of aging, health, and cognition will lead to significant gains in knowledge from these longitudinal studies and permit the identification and reconciliation of differences found across studies in terms of measurement, sampling, demographic, social, and health indicators. This broad collaboration has extensive multidisciplinary expertise and interdisciplinary interests. The diversity of perspectives is maintained in the development of analysis protocols, ensuring generalizability of results and evaluation of the sensitivity of results to decisions regarding measurement harmonization, analysis, and choice of theoretical models, while maximizing data value from each study. The findings from this research program will provide a basis for prevention and intervention efforts and inform health policy by identifying premorbid and subsequent changes associated with morbidity and comorbidity, and sociodemographic and psychosocial moderators of these changes. Potential interventions will be enhanced by early identification of change-points signaling subsequent loss of function and mortality.