The proposed project involves research and training on Alzheimer's Disease. The first two years of the project will combine a) a collaborative research project to improve the clinical description of the disease, b) extensive reading on various aspects of the disease, and c) observation of patients plus participation in caregiver training programs and an Alzheimer's support group. The collaborative research will involve applying statistical models (including mixed Markov latent class models) to study variations in the speed and nature of the progression of the disease. This model will be applied to the patient registry of Penn Alzheimer's Disease Center Core (ADCC). The results will be valuable to clinicians and to researchers attempting to understand the causes of the disease. During the second year, we will design research projects to be carried out in the community surrounding the University of Pennsylvania during the later years of the grant. These community studies will deal with the burden of home care, the social implications of the disease for families, and with the potential for appropriate case. management to reduce the social and economic costs of home care. The Penn Population Studies Center (PSC), an NICHD-funded center, is one of the preeminent demographic research centers in the world. It has received NIA funding to support post-doctoral fellows and the initiation of new research. Samuel Preston will serve as a Sponsor for this project. He is involved in several projects on the demography of aging and will provide overall guidance on developing research on Alzheimer's from a demographic perspective. The Penn ADCC (supported by NIA) is a strong group of researchers collaborating on Alzheimer's at the Penn Medical Center. Gary Gottlieb, Associate Director the ADCC and P.I. for its clinical core, will serve as a Sponsor and will be a collaborator on the proposed research.
| Ewbank, D C (1999) Deaths attributable to Alzheimer's disease in the United States. Am J Public Health 89:90-2 |
