Mathematical modeling of frailty, cognition, and neuropathology

 
   Lead Investigator:    Joshua Armstrong
   Institution      :    Dalhousie University
   E-Mail           :    joshua.j.armstrong@dal.ca
   Proposal ID      :    421


   Publications:


1  Armstrong JJ, Godin J, Wallace L, Mitnitski A, Fisk J, Darvesh S, Andrew MK, Rockwood K
   Frailty, neuropathology and clinical disease expression in dementia
   2018   Journal Article  J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry , 

   SUBMITTED



2  Armstrong JJ, Godin J, Wallace LMK, Andrew MK, Rockwood K
   Frailty Impacts the Relationship Between Neuropathology and Dementia Disease Expression
   Abstract  Alzheimers Dement,12:P559,2016,

   PUBLISHED





   Proposal Description:
   Two of the most common detrimental ailments in older adults are frailty and cognitive impairment.   While often considered as separate disorders, researchers are beginning to recognize that frailty and cognitive impairment are deeply entangled.  A potential link that may bridge these two geriatric giants is the pathological insults in brain tissue that commonly occur during the aging process.  This proposed study will use innovative quantitative approaches to enhance understanding of the associations between frailty, cognitive impairment, and neuropathology in older adults.  Frailty will be measured using an accumulation of health deficit approach (Mitnitski et al., 2001) in the UDS data and then evaluated in relation to the linked neuropathology data set and BALI scores (Chen et al., 2010) in the MRI imaging data.                                                                                                                                                               It is well understood that the correlation between neuropathological lesions and cognition is inexact.  Our conceptualization of frailty in relation to deficit accumulation is that the occurrence of a deficit reflects damage that  can neither be repaired nor removed, so that an increasing level of deficit       accumulation (i.e. increased frailty) signals a decline in repair processes.  In consequence, our specific hypothesis is that in an education-adjusted model,  the frailty index will correlate best with the  neuropathology, and controlling for the level of frailty, neuropathologic lesions will correlate better with      cognition.