Study Overview

The Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study began in 1994 as a landmark study of older adults to better understand factors that affect healthy aging, brain health, and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia prevention over a person’s lifetime.

During the last 3 decades, the ACT Study has enrolled and followed several thousand older adults who receive care as Kaiser Permanente Washington members. To date, the project has identified numerous factors that affect brain aging including exercise and sleep, with the aim of developing better ways to treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Each year, the ACT Study invites a random selection of Kaiser Permanente Washington members ages 65 and older to participate. Invited people who choose to join this study have an ACT Study visit every 1 or 2 years for as long as they stay in the study. During these visits, staff collect a wide range of information about participants’ medical care, physical health, and cognitive health, including their memory and thinking abilities. Some participants are asked to wear devices that collect data on physical activity and sleep and may also be asked to give a blood sample.

The ACT Study team uses all the information collected at these study visits along with medical record information to study how memory and thinking abilities change over long periods of time.