Our Research Projects
“Knowledge about risk factors and potential prevention, detection, and diagnosis of dementia is improving although significant gaps remain.”
— Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission
The Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study is actually multiple projects related to the factors that underlie and tell us more about dementia. For example, what is the role of our lifestyle in dementia, including how we sleep, exercise, and go about our day? Previous research also tells us that Alzheimer’s disease shows up in many different ways — for example, some people become more emotional, and others have differences in how they recall long-term and short-term memories. Another line of inquiry focuses on the interaction between different classes of medications and cognitive decline. Since a sizable proportion of older adults are taking commonly prescribed medications for blood pressure or other health conditions, understanding the long-term effects of these medications and other lifestyle factors is vitally important.
In short, there are many variations in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. With the ACT Study, we strive to shine a light on these critical intricacies through our project portfolio, so that strategies to ease the impact of these conditions will follow.
Each of the projects examines an aspect of aging that capitalizes on the rich, unique, and interrelated types of data from the ACT Study.
