title: Factors associated with brain donation among optimally healthy elderly people.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Consent rates for brain donation were examined in 140 healthy elderly participants of the Oregon Brain Aging Study, a longitudinal study of successful aging. Subjects were initially selected for good health. The study population had a relatively high education level, a high socioeconomic status, and were predominantly white.
  
  
  METHODS
  At each annual examination, a project physician asked participants to consider brain donation. This analysis examined variables that may affect the rate of brain donation consent: age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, marital status, religiosity, cognitive status, depression, and functional status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of these variables only age was a meaningful factor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The oldest old participants (> or =85 years of age) were more likely to consent to donation than the younger participants (65-84 years of age).
authors.affiliation: Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Portland, Oregon, USA. kaye@ohsu.edu
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Kaye
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dame
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lehman
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sexton
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001921:Brain; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors