title: Overview and findings from the religious orders study.
abstract: The Religious Orders Study is a longitudinal clinical-pathologic cohort study of aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this manuscript, we summarize the study methods including the study design and describe the clinical evaluation, assessment of risk factors, collection of ante-mortem biological specimens, brain autopsy and collection of selected postmortem data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  (1) review the relation of neuropathologic indices to clinical diagnoses and cognition proximate to death; (2) examine the relation of risk factors to clinical outcomes; (3) examine the relation of risk factors to measures of neuropathology; and (4) summarize additional study findings. We then discuss and contextualize the study findings.
authors.affiliation: Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, 600 S. Paulina, Suite 1028, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. David_A_Bennett@Rush.edu
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: Julie A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Zoe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Arvanitakis
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D001344:Autopsy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012107:Research Design; D012307:Risk Factors