COSMIC (Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium): An international consortium to identify risk and protective factors and biomarkers of cognitive ageing and dementia...
Creators: name: Sachdev, Perminder
name: Lipnicki, Darren
name: Kochan, Nicole
name: Crawford, John
name: Rockwood, Kenneth
name: Xiao, Shifu
name: Li, Juan
name: Li, Xia
name: Brayne, Carol
name: Matthews, Fiona
name: Stephan, Blossom
name: Lipton, Richard
name: Katz, Mindy
name: Ritchie, Karen
name: Carrière, Isabelle
name: Ancelin, Marie-Laure
name: Seshadri, Sudha
name: Au, Rhoda
name: Beiser, Alexa
name: Lam, Linda
name: Wong, Candy
name: Fung, Ada
name: Kim, Ki
name: Han, Ji
name: Kim, Tae
name: Petersen, Ronald
name: Roberts, Rosebud
name: Mielke, Michelle
name: Ganguli, Mary
name: Dodge, Hiroko
name: Hughes, Tiffany
name: Anstey, Kaarin
name: Cherbuin, Nicolas
name: Butterworth, Peter
name: Ng, Tze
name: Gao, Qi
name: Reppermund, Simone
name: Brodaty, Henry
name: Meguro, Kenichi
name: Schupf, Nicole
name: Manly, Jennifer J.
name: Stern, Yaakov
name: Lobo, Antonio
name: Lopez-Anton, Raúl
name: Santabárbara, Javier
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2013
Subjects: subject: Older people
subject: Mild cognitive impairment
subject: Neurosciences
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Bioinformatics
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Background: A large number of longitudinal studies of population-based ageing cohorts are in progress internationally, but the insights from these studies into the risk and protective factors for cognitive ageing and conditions like mild cognitive impairment and dementia have been inconsistent. Some of the problems confounding this research can be reduced by harmonising and pooling data across studies. COSMIC (Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium) aims to harmonise data from international cohort studies of cognitive ageing, in order to better understand the determinants of cognitive ageing and neurocognitive disorders. Methods/Design: Longitudinal studies of cognitive ageing and dementia with at least 500 individuals aged 60 years or over are eligible and invited to be members of COSMIC. There are currently 17 member studies, from regions that include Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. A Research Steering Committee has been established, two meetings of study leaders held, and a website developed. The initial attempts at harmonising key variables like neuropsychological test scores are in progress. Discussion: The challenges of international consortia like COSMIC include efficient communication among members, extended use of resources, and data harmonisation. Successful harmonisation will facilitate projects investigating rates of cognitive decline, risk and protective factors for mild cognitive impairment, and biomarkers of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Extended implications of COSMIC could include standardised ways of collecting and reporting data, and a rich cognitive ageing database being made available to other researchers. COSMIC could potentially transform our understanding of the epidemiology of cognitive ageing, and have a world-wide impact on promoting successful ageing.