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


CONCLUSIONS
Now 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.
"Golgi Cenci" Foundation, Corso San Martino 8, 20081 Abbiategrasso, Italy. a.guaita@golgicenci.it.
Antonio
A
Guaita
Mauro
M
Colombo
Roberta
R
Vaccaro
Silvia
S
Fossi
Silvia Francesca
SF
Vitali
Gianluigi
G
Forloni
Letizia
L
Polito
Annalisa
A
Davin
Virginia Valeria
VV
Ferretti
Simona
S
Villani
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*