Pesticide Exposure and Age-Related Changes in Cognitive Function

描述（由申请人提供）：在成年农场工人中，农药暴露与认知缺陷有关。暴露于农药是否会导致特定认知领域的损伤和下降，超出正常衰老的预期，目前尚不清楚。正常衰老与各种复杂认知能力的下降有关，包括处理速度，工作记忆，心理灵活性和空间学习的下降，而认知的某些方面，如语言技能，内隐学习和语义记忆，通常基本上保持不变。复杂认知能力差与日常生活活动的更大限制、获得医疗保健系统的问题、易受疾病、伤害、营养不良的影响以及随后丧失在社区中独立运作的能力有关。这种丧失独立的情况损害了受影响个人及其照顾者的生活质量，并对受影响家庭和社会构成重大的经济负担。先前的研究表明，接触农药与认知功能障碍的风险有关，但没有研究探讨低水平的长期接触农药是否会加剧与年龄相关的认知功能障碍。将与农药暴露相关的认知衰退与正常衰老区分开来，可能是衡量低水平慢性农药暴露影响的一个敏感指标。我们提出了一个探索性的项目，记录农药对老年人认知功能的影响。这项研究将使我们能够实现以下目标。主要目的是：（1）确定受农药暴露影响的认知功能领域;（2）确定老年农场工人是否更容易受到农药暴露的影响，并且与年轻农场工人相比，其认知得分明显较差。第二个目的是探索正常衰老和农药暴露对1年随访时认知功能变化的相对贡献。我们的目标是提供一个早期的了解老化和农药暴露对认知功能的相互作用，并实现探索性的纵向研究基准，包括质量控制，招聘，保留，措施细化，和样本量估计。这些信息将为未来的确定性研究提供基础，这些研究旨在确定和表征受影响的认知领域以及与农药暴露相关的认知功能暂时下降。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In adult farm workers, pesticide exposure is associated with cognitive deficits. Whether exposure to pesticide causes impairments and declines in specific cognitive domains beyond what would be expected due to normal aging alone is not known. Normal aging is associated with declines in various complex cognitive abilities, including declines in processing speed, working memory, mental flexibility, and spatial learning, while some aspects of cognition, such as those involving verbal skills, implicit learning, and semantic memory, generally remain largely spared. Poor complex cognitive abilities are associated with greater limitations in activities of daily living, problems accessing health care systems, vulnerability to disease, injury, malnutrition, and subsequently a loss of ability to function independently in the community. That loss of independence impairs the quality of life for both the affected individuals and their caregivers, and constitutes a major financial burden to affected families and society. Previous studies suggest that exposure to pesticide is associated with the risk for cognitive impairment, but no study has examined whether low-level chronic exposure to pesticide exacerbates age-related impairments in cognitive function. Distinguishing cognitive decrements associated with pesticide exposure from normal aging could prove to be a sensitive measure of the effects of low-level chronic exposure to pesticide. We propose an exploratory project to document the effects of pesticides on cognitive function in older adults. This study will enable us to address the following aims. The primary aims are (1) to identify the domains of cognitive function that are affected by pesticide exposure; and (2) to determine whether older farm workers are more vulnerable to the effects of pesticide exposure and have significantly poorer cognitive scores than younger farm workers. A secondary aim focuses on exploring the relative contributions of normal aging and pesticide exposure to change in cognitive function at 1-year follow-up. Our goals are to provide an early understanding of the interaction of aging and pesticide exposure on cognitive function, and to achieve exploratory longitudinal study benchmarks, including quality control, recruitment, retention, measures refinement, and sample size estimates. The information will provide the foundation for future definitive studies directed towards identifying and characterizing cognitive domains that are affected and temporal decline in cognitive function as related to pesticide exposure.