Brain aging and dementia during the transition from late adulthood to old age: design and methodology of the "Invece.Ab" population-based study.

Antonio Guaita,Simona Villani,Gianluigi Forloni,Virginia Valeria Ferretti,Silvia Fossi,Roberta Vaccaro,Silvia Francesca Vitali,Annalisa Davin,Letizia Polito,Mauro Colombo

doi:10.1186/1471-2318-13-98

Abstract

BackgroundDeveloped countries are experiencing an unprecedented increase in life expectancy that is accompanied by a tremendous rise in the number of people with dementia. The purpose of this paper is to report on the study design and methodology of an Italian population-based study on brain aging and dementia in the elderly. This multi-domain study is structured in two phases. Our goal is to gather sufficient data to estimate the prevalence (phase I: cross-sectional study), the incidence and the progression of dementia and its subtypes as well as cognitive impairment (phase II: follow-up study) and to identify socio-demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors associated with dementia and the quality of brain aging in people aged 70–74 years, a crucial point between late adulthood and old age.Methods/DesignWe chose to contact all 1773 people born between 1935–39 residing in Abbiategrasso, Milan, Italy. Those who agreed to participate in the “Invece.Ab” study were enrolled in a cross-sectional assessment and will be contacted two and four years after the initial data collection to participate in the longitudinal survey. Both the cross-sectional and longitudinal assessments include a medical evaluation, a neuropsychological test battery, several anthropometric measurements, a social and lifestyle interview, blood analyses, and the storage of a blood sample for the evaluation of putative biological markers.DiscussionNow at the end of the recruitment phase, the evaluable population has amounted to 1644 people. Among these, 1321 (80.35%) of the participants have completed phase I. This high return rate was likely due to the style of recruitment and personalization of the contacts.Trial registrationNCT01345110

Highlights

Developed countries are experiencing an unprecedented increase in life expectancy that is accompanied by a tremendous rise in the number of people with dementia
Discussion: at the end of the recruitment phase, the evaluable population has amounted to 1644 people
Large multicenter studies or meta-analyses [6] may reduce this problem. These studies are inevitably conducted in different geographical areas, introducing variability that might impact the interpretation of the data

Summary

Introduction

Developed countries are experiencing an unprecedented increase in life expectancy that is accompanied by a tremendous rise in the number of people with dementia. The purpose of this paper is to report on the study design and methodology of an Italian population-based study on brain aging and dementia in the elderly. Large multicenter studies or meta-analyses [6] may reduce this problem These studies are inevitably conducted in different geographical areas, introducing variability that might impact the interpretation of the data. Another important issue, thought to contribute to prevalence estimate heterogeneity, is that the majority of the studies, at least in Europe, adopts a two-phase approach, which consists of a screening phase, generally administering MMSE, followed by a diagnostic phase that include clinical and neuropsychological examination [7]

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