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<B>Cognitive aging among older adults in same-sex and other-sex relationships
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   Lead Investigator:    Kathryn Gauthreaux
   Institution      :    NACC
   E-Mail           :    kgaut@uw.edu
   Proposal ID      :    1629
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   Proposal Description:
   <textarea name="description" rows="12" cols="85" wrap="virtual" readonly>Prolonged exposure to prejudice and discrimination related to one?s minority identity is known as minority stress (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema,  Dovidio, 2009). Chronic stress has harmful effects on physiological and cognitive functioning (McEwen, 2007 McEwen  Stellar, 1993 Segerstrom  Miller, 2004) , and minority stress in particular has been shown to impact medical and mental health (Meyer, 2003). For example, higher perceived stress predicted poorer episodic memory and visuospatial ability in a sample of African American elders (Turner, James, Capuano, Aggarwal,  Barnes, 2017). LGBT+ elders may be at an increased risk for neurocognitive problems because of long-term stress exposure (Correro  Nielson, 2019).   LGBT+ older adults endorse having mild to moderate cognitive difficulties (Fredricksen-Goldsen, Jen, Bryan,  Goldsen, 2016). In a separate sample, 23 of LGBT+ adults aged 50 years and older reported significant declines in memory and at least one other cognitive ability (Flatt, Johnson, Karpiak, Seidel, Larson,  Brennan-Ing, 2018). Yet, there were no differences between adults aged 55 years and older in same- versus other-sex relationships with regards to mild cognitive impairment and all-cause dementia (Perales-Puchalt et al., 2020). Yet, no studies to date have directly examined compared cognitive functioning or trajectoriesy in between LGBT+ individuals with normal cognition, MCI, or dementia and their heterosexual peers adults in same-sex relationships with normal cognition, MCI, or dementia.  The primary objective of the proposed study is to compare the cognitive profiles change of LGBT+ older adults with dementia, MCI, or unimpaired cogniticognition between LGBT+ individuals and their heterosexual peersve scores at baseline. Cognitive change scores will also be evaluated to investigate divergent patterns of cognitive decline among same- versus other-sex relationship dyads . This project aims to establish feasibility for future studies with LGBT+ e </textarea>