Title: Mediation Analysis in Understanding Mechanism of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk.
Authors: Sajeev, Gautam,; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.; Harvard University
Year: 2015
Abstract: Although studies often show reduced risk of dementia with late-life cognitive activity, concerns about residual confounding and reverse causation cast doubt on these findings. In Chapter 1 of this dissertation, we review epidemiologic studies of cognitive activity and incidence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and all-cause dementia, and conduct a bias analysis that indicates the observed inverse associations are likely robust to unmeasured confounding, and probably only partially explained by reverse causation. While pursuing enjoyable cognitive activities may reduce dementia risk, better characterization of the type, duration, and timing of activity associated with late-life cognitive benefit is needed to develop recommendations applicable over the lifecourse.