Longitudinal investigations of cognitive abilities in older adults have shown that even though most abilities decline with advancing age few individuals show decline on all abilities and decline at the same rate. This heterogeneity in change of cognitive functioning is related, in part, to differential life experiences, social factors, chronic illnesses, and poor health. There is substantial evidence that African Americans experience differential and increased exposure to chronic stressors, have higher rates for many chronic illnesses and self-reports of poor health, and have different life experiences as compared to Caucasian elderly. However, research on aging has only begun to explore the relationships between these factors and cognitive functioning in African Americans, while the lion's share of the previous research has focused on Caucasian elderly. It is this paucity of research on the causes and consequences of cognitive aging in African American elders that has lead to the proposed longitudinal investigation. Specifically, this study will address the following objectives: 1) Determine the rate of change in multiple cognitive abilities over a three year period in African American elders, 2) Determine the extent to which changes across cognitive abilities are correlated, 3) Explore the association between socio demographic characteristics and change in cognitive functioning, 4) Examine the extent to which health and changes in health over a thirty month period are associated with declines in cognitive competence, 5) Explore the extent to which social support serves to buffer loss in cognitive competence, 6) Investigate the how cognitive functioning and decline in cognitive performance is associated with losses in everyday functional competency. The proposed project will collect longitudinal data on 600 African Americans between 50-79 years of age. There will be two interviews during the project period with a 30 month interval between sessions. The interview will consist of measures of cognition and memory, health indices, psychological, and social variables. Understanding the trajectories of cognitive abilities and the factors that contribute to change and stability in African Americans has at least two important contributions: 1) Elucidate the dynamics of how cognitive function changes with age in a population at risk, 2) Improve our understanding of the significance individual factors hold as protective factors against or risk factors for decline in cognitive functioning.
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