Community-dwelling older adults aged 70–90 years, living in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Australia, were selected via the electoral roll and invited to participate in the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (MAS) in 2005. Of the 8,914 individuals invited to participate, 1,037 participants were included in the baseline sample. Inclusion criteria were the ability to speak and write English sufficiently well to complete a psychometric assessment and self-report questionnaires. Exclusion criteria included any major psychiatric diagnoses, acute psychotic symptoms, or a current diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, developmental disability, progressive malignancy, or dementia. More detailed methods of recruitment and baseline demographics have been previously described by Sachdev et al. (2010) (link). For the current study, participants were further excluded if they were not able to speak English at a basic conversational level by the age of 9 (N = 164) because of the questionable validity of using normative data based on persons of English-speaking background to determine cognitive impairment in these individuals (Kochan et al., 2010 (link)).
Of the 873 participants included in the present study, 849 (97.3%) had an informant at baseline. Informants were nominated by the participants and answered questions relating to the participant’s memory, thinking, and daily functioning at each study wave. Informants were required to have at least 1 h of contact with the participant per week and were composed of spouses, children, family members, and close friends or contacts.
Comprehensive assessments consisting of medical history, medical examination, neuropsychological testing, and subjective cognitive complaints were conducted by trained research assistants at two-yearly intervals (called waves). At each wave, informants completed comprehensive telephone interviews and questionnaire packets about themselves and the participants. All participants and informants provided written consent to participate in this study, which was approved by the University of New South Wales Human Ethics Review Committee (HC: 05037, 09382, 14327). A study flowchart outlining participant and informant sample size, dementia incidence and participants’ reason for attrition at each wave is presented inFigure 1 .
Of the 873 participants included in the present study, 849 (97.3%) had an informant at baseline. Informants were nominated by the participants and answered questions relating to the participant’s memory, thinking, and daily functioning at each study wave. Informants were required to have at least 1 h of contact with the participant per week and were composed of spouses, children, family members, and close friends or contacts.
Comprehensive assessments consisting of medical history, medical examination, neuropsychological testing, and subjective cognitive complaints were conducted by trained research assistants at two-yearly intervals (called waves). At each wave, informants completed comprehensive telephone interviews and questionnaire packets about themselves and the participants. All participants and informants provided written consent to participate in this study, which was approved by the University of New South Wales Human Ethics Review Committee (HC: 05037, 09382, 14327). A study flowchart outlining participant and informant sample size, dementia incidence and participants’ reason for attrition at each wave is presented in
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