Design: Longitudinal, epidemiologic clinical-pathologic cohort study of aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD)
Participants: Older (age 65+) Catholic nuns, priests, and brothers from more than 40 groups across US
Enrollment began in 1994.
Design: Longitudinal, epidemiologic clinical-pathologic cohort study of common chronic conditions of aging with emphasis on decline in cognitive and motor function and risk of AD
Participants: Older (age 65+) adults recruited from retirement communities and subsidized senior housing facilities throughout Chicagoland and northeastern Illinois
Recruitment began in 1997, with expanded recruitment and data collection in 2001. Participants are invited to participate in substudies (including studies of physical activity and sleep using actigraphy; neuroimaging; and health and financial decision making).
Design: Longitudinal, epidemiologic cohort study of cognitive decline and risk of AD in older African Americans
Participants: Older (age 65+) adults who self-identify as African American adults
Recruitment began in 2004, voluntary brain donation began in 2010. Recruitment locations include churches, subsidized senior housing facilities, retirement communities, African American clubs, organizations, fraternities, sororities, and social service centers that cater to seniors in the metropolitan Chicago area and outlying suburbs.
Design: Longitudinal, epidemiologic clinical-pathologic cohort study of the transition from normal aging to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to the earliest stages of dementia
Participants: Older (age 65+) adults from metropolitan Chicago area and outlying suburbs, the majority of whom self-identify as African American
The Clinical Core started in 1992 and consisted primarily of whites with dementia enrolled from the Rush memory clinic. Since then the Core has transitioned in 2008 to consist of primarily older African Americans, most without dementia who share a common core of risk factors with the other RADC studies and use the same harmonized cognitive battery. This design feature allows researchers to merge the Clinical Core data with other RADC studies in order to augment the number of older African Americans for analyses.
Design: Longitudinal, epidemiologic cohort study of cognitive decline and identifying risk factors of AD in older Latinos
Participants: Older (age 65+) adults who self-identify as Latino/Hispanic
Recruitment began in October of 2015. Recruitment locations range from churches, subsidized senior housing facilities, retirement communities, Latino/Hispanic clubs, organizations, and social service centers that cater to seniors in various Chicago neighborhoods and outlying suburbs.
Design: Longitudinal, epidemiologic cohort study of aging among individuals with and without HIV
Participants: Self-identified African Americans and Whites, aged 50+ who are either HIV-positive or HIV-negative
Recruitment began in 2012.
Design: Genetic pathology study to identify genomic variants of African and European Ancestry associated with AD and other common neurodegenerative disease pathologies. The study leverages a unique resource, the Sao Paulo Autopsy Center at the University of Sao Paulo, to prospectively collect post-mortem data on brain pathologies and genomic data, from 10,000 admixed Brazilian brains. The study will characterize the entire genome for African, European, and Native Brazilian ancestry and link genetic variants to quantitative pathologic traits to target the full spectrum of each disease.
Subjects: Individuals middle aged and older who are autopsied at the Sao Paulo Autopsy Service (SPAS)
Study began in September 2016. Consent is obtained from next-of-kin upon arrival at the autopsy service.