This project will evaluate the role of personality and other non-cognitive risk factors (e.g., affect, resilience) that impact and moderate the pattern and progression of Alzheimer?s disease (AD) and AD-related dementia, as well as change in physical and cognitive impairment. The impact of an individual?s personality, their affect, and resilience are critical factors to take into account in the context of individual changes in onset and progression of Alzheimer?s disease, AD-related dementia, general cognitive impairment, and physical health status. We embrace the concept of precision medicine, in the sense of understanding individual differences factors that underlie risk and resilience to health changes, including Alzheimer?s disease and AD-related dementia. Individual differences in risk factors are at the heart of this project. An important aspect of this multi-study project is the potential to focus on explanations for variation in findings across independent studies of Alzheimer?s disease, AD-related dementia, and physical and cognitive impairment. . We have found that in previous coordinated analyses there is often wide variation in effect sizes across studies that utilize identical measures of personality and have been analyzed using identical models, hence we propose systematic meta-regression analyses to evaluate better these individual and study-level differences. This approach promises a more in- depth understanding of lifestyle factors related to Alzheimer?s disease and AD-related dementia, as well as general cognitive impairment and physical health. Impact: This project addresses NIA research goals supporting the examination of the interplay between psychological and social factors and their role in Alzheimer?s disease and AD-related dementia, as well as more general cognitive impairment and physical health declines. It also promotes robustness, replicability and reproducibility, particularly in the context of Alzheimer?s disease and AD-related dementia research, through the very nature of our multi-study coordinated analysis format.
