The Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is a national longitudinal study of individuals aged 50 and older in Mexico, with three waves of data covering from 2001 to 2012, and wave-4 planned for 2015. Since its inception, the MHAS has been highly comparable to the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States, using similar protocols and survey contents. The overall goal of the proposed project is to assess the prevalence and risk factors of dementia and other cognitive impairments in Mexico with a harmonized approach, working with similar studies globally that use national samples and a population-based approach.
The specific aims are: 1) Contribute to harmonization in the global study of dementia by launching an ancillary study of the national sample of older adults in Mexico, the MHAS. 2) Estimate the national prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment in Mexico, harmonized with other countries, by using comparable data analysis strategies and methods. 3) Maximize the utilization of the MHAS data for cross-national dementia studies, by archiving, documenting, and disseminating the ancillary study databases and its resulting constructed variables. The ancillary study will include approximately 3,000 subjects, a sub-sample of the full MHAS wave-4 sample. The databases for the ancillary interview will include results from in-depth cognitive assessments and biomarkers, anthropometric measures, and performance tests. The harmonization goal will be achieved by collaborating with a `coordination project' conducted by researchers of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States and through them, with the family of similar studies in the rest of the world. We will harmonize as much as possible, from the fieldwork training materials to the data cleaning, treatment of non-response, and methods used to cross-walk from the ancillary study to the full MHAS sample to estimate national prevalence of dementia and other cognitive impairments. The proposed ancillary study in Mexico will further enhance the analytical power of the parent study MHAS, enabling rigorous cross-national examination of the risk factors and consequences of dementia, an under- studied condition in developing countries that are aging rapidly.
This project assesses the prevalence and risk factors of dementia and other cognitive impairments in a national sample of Mexicans, by conducting in-depth interviews of a sub-sample of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). The research protocol and survey instruments will be harmonized by collaborating with a `coordination project' conducted in the United States as part of the Health and Retirement Study family of studies, to promote cross-national examination of dementia using national samples and a population-based approach.
| Garcia, Marc A; Saenz, Joseph L; Downer, Brian et al. (2018) Age of Migration Differentials in Life Expectancy With Cognitive Impairment: 20-Year Findings From the Hispanic-EPESE. Gerontologist 58:894-903 |
| Mejía-Arango, Silvia; Wong, Rebeca; Michaels-Obregón, Alejandra (2015) Normative and standardized data for cognitive measures in the Mexican Health and Aging Study. Salud Publica Mex 57 Suppl 1:S90-6 |
