DOI: 10.7272/q6707zn0
title: Apathy and risk of probable incident dementia among community-dwelling older adults

description: Objective: To evaluate the association between baseline apathy and
 probable incident dementia in a population-based sample of
 community-dwelling older adults. Methods: We studied 2,018 white and black
 community-dwelling older adults from the Health, Aging, and Body
 Composition (Health ABC) study. We measured apathy at year 6 (our study
 baseline) with the modified Apathy Evaluation Scale and divided
 participants into tertiles based on low, moderate, or severe apathy
 symptoms. Incident dementia was ascertained over 9 years by dementia
 medication use, hospital records, or clinically relevant cognitive decline
 on global cognition. We examined the association between apathy and
 probable incident dementia using a Cox proportional hazards model
 adjusting for demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, APOE-4 status,
 and depressed mood. We also evaluated the association between the apathy
 group and cognitive change (as measured by the Modified Mini Mental State
 Examination and Digit Symbol Substitution Test over 5 years) using linear
 mixed effects models. Results: Over 9 years of follow-up, 381 participants
 developed probable dementia. Severe apathy was associated with an
 increased risk of dementia compared to low apathy (25% vs 14%) in
 unadjusted (HR 1.9, 95% CI 1.5–2.5) and adjusted models (HR 1.7, 95% CI
 1.3–2.2). Greater apathy was associated with worse cognitive score at
 baseline, but not rate of change over time. Conclusion: In a diverse
 cohort of community-dwelling adults, apathy was associated with increased
 risk of developing probable dementia. This study provides novel evidence
 for apathy as a prodrome of dementia.
description: These data was collected through the Health ABC study and cleaned
 and analyzed in Stata. There are no direct identifiers in the dataset. To
 avoid having &gt;3 indirect identifiers, I removed age and gender from
 the dataset. 
description: Please see below for the data dictionary, with age and gender
 removed habcid          double  %11.0g              
  HABC ENROLLMENT ID<br> apoehap         double  %12.0g              
  Apo E genotyping (e2, e3, e4)<br> dep             double  %12.0g  
              YR1:AT RISK FOR DEPRESSION (CES-D GE 16)<br> ces_d    
       double  %5.0g                 CES-D<br> stroke          double
  %12.0g                Year 1 current cereb dx: stroke, tia,
 cend<br> htn             double  %12.0g                Year 1
 current hypertension<br> apoe4           double  %12.0g            
    APOE e4 carrier<br> white           double  %12.0g               
 Race<br> eduhs           double  %12.0g               
 Education<br> mi              double  %12.0g                 History
 of myocardial infarction<br> dm              double  %12.0g         
       History of DM<br> obese           double  %12.0g             
  History of obesity<br> fbaaf01         double  %12.0g             
   Apathy question: Y6Q69:4 wks�how interested in activities<br>
 fbaaf02         double  %12.0g                Apathy question: Y6Q70:4
 wks�how interested leaving home?<br> fbaaf03         double  %12.0g
                Apathy question: Y6Q71: 4 wks�how interested
 w,friends?<br> fbaaf04         double  %12.0g                Apathy
 question: Y6Q72:  Getting thgs done�is important<br> fbaaf05        
 double  %12.0g                Apathy question: Y6Q73: Seeing a job�to the
 end�important<br> dem_dx          double  %12.0g             
  Dementia diagnosis<br> dementia        double  %12.0g             
  Dementia diagnosis<br> dep_y6          double  %12.0g             
   Depression at year 6<br> event_date      long    %d               
        Date of dementia diagnosis<br> time_to_event   double  %5.0g 
              Time to dementia diagnosis<br> missy6          double
  %12.0g                0=had year 6 visit date, 1=no year 6 visit
 date<br> dem_after_y6    double  %12.0g                0=dementia
 before year 6; 1=dementia after year 6<br> dod             long  
  %d                    Date*of*Death