RISK AND PROTECTION FACTORS FOR NORMAL AND ABNORMAL BRAIN AGEING: A LONGITUDINAL EPIDEMIOLOGICAL MRI STUDY

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/157125

Funding Status
Closed

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Funded Activity Summary

Brain is considered the last frontier of medicine, and ageing the major challenge to health care in the 21st century. In this proposal, we bring these two challenges together in a major new longitudinal study of ageing in Canberra that has recently been initiated. This is a longitudinal study of a random community sample covering 3 age groups - 20-24 years, 40-44 years and 60-64 years, with at least 2000 participants in each age group - who are being assessed in 1999-2001, and will be followed up at 4-yearly intervals for 20 years. The focus of the study is on neuropsychiatric disorders (anxiety, depression, substance use and cognitive disorders). In this application, we propose to perform MRI scans and blood tests on a quarter (n-500) of the 60-64 sample to obtain an epidemiological sample for brain morphology. Not only will we be able to study changes in brain morphology over time, and relate it with cognitive function and psychiatric disorder, we will also be able to assess the role of risk and protection factors. We are particularly interested in brain reserve, dietary factors (anti-oxidants, omega 3, wine and folate) and drugs (anti-inflammatory drugs, hormone replacement and vitamin supplements) as protection factors, and hypertension, homocysteine levels, white matter lesions on MRI and low hippocampal volumes as risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia. We also want to study the brain morphological correlates of Depression in a community sample. The study will enhance our understanding of the ageing brain, both in health and disease, and identify factors that increase or decrease the risk of cognitive impairment and psychiatric disorder in old age.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2001

End Date: 01-01-2002

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $153,020.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Geriatrics And Gerontology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Ageing | Brain reserve | Cognitive impairment | Dementia | Depression | Magnetic resonance imaging | White matter lesions

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