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Purpose: The purpose of the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS) is to initiate a nationwide, population-based prospective cohort study of older adults living in the community to assess their frailty status and explore transitions between frailty states over time in Korea., Participants: The KFACS is a multicentre longitudinal study with the baseline survey conducted from May 2016 to November 2017. Each centre recruited participants using quota sampling stratified by age and sex. The number of participants recruited through 2 years of baseline study from 10 centres was 3014, with each site accounting for approximately 300 participants. The inclusion criteria were: having an age of 70-84 years, currently living in the community, having no plans to move out in the next 2 years, having no problems with communication and no prior dementia diagnosis., Findings to Date: To define physical frailty, the KFACS used a modified version of the Fried Frailty Phenotype (FFP) consisting of five components of frailty: unintended weight loss, weakness, self-reported exhaustion, slowness and low physical activity. In the baseline study of 2016-2017, 2907 of 3014 individuals fulfilled all five components of FFP. The results indicated that 7.8% of the participants (n=228) were frail, 47.0% (n=1366) were prefrail and 45.2% (n=1313) were robust. The prevalence of frailty increased with age in both sexes; in the group aged 70-74 years, 1.8% of men and 3.7% of women were frail, whereas in the 80-84 years age group, 14.9% of men and 16.7% of women were frail. Women tended to exhibit a higher prevalence of frailty than men in all age groups., Future Plans: The KFACS plans to identify outcomes and risk factors associated with frailty by conducting a 10-year cohort study, with a follow-up every 2 years, using 3014 baseline participants., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: There is a growing interest in finding psychosocial predictors related to cognitive function. In our previous research, we conducted a cross-sectional study on memory age identity (MAI) and found that MAI might be associated with objective cognitive performance in non-cognitively impaired elderly. A longitudinal study was conducted to better understand the importance of MAI as a psychosocial predictor related to objective cognitive function., Methods: Data obtained from 1345 Korean subjects aged 60 years and above were analyzed. During the two-year follow-up, subjective memory age was assessed on three occasions using the following question: How old do you feel based on your memory? Discrepancy between subjective memory age and chronological age was then calculated. We defined this value as 'memory age identity (MAI)'. A generalized estimating equation (GEE) was then obtained to demonstrate the relationship between MAI and Korean version-Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) score over the 2 years of study., Results: MAI was found to significantly (β=-0.03, p< 0.0001) predict objective cognitive performance in the non-cognitively impaired elderly., Conclusion: MAI may be a potential psychosocial predictor related to objective cognitive performance in the non-cognitively impaired elderly., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The study's aim was to examine the association of alcohol consumption with verbal and visuospatial memory impairment in older people., Methods: Participants were 1,572, aged ≥60 years, in the hospital-based registry of the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS). Moderate drinking was defined as no more than seven drinks per week and three drinks per day. Memory impairment was defined as performance with more than 1 standard deviation below the mean value on the Seoul Verbal Learning Test and Rey Complex Figure Test., Results: Those who consumed alcohol moderately, compared with abstainers, had a lower odds of verbal memory impairment (Odds Ratio [OR] = 0.64; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.46-0.87), adjusting for covariates. Visuospatial memory, however, was not significantly associated with alcohol consumption., Conclusions: Moderate alcohol drinking is associated with a reduced likelihood of verbal memory impairment among older people attending memory clinics.

Smaller premorbid brain volume is known to be related to cognitive deterioration in older adults, supporting a reserve hypothesis of brain aging. Heavy lifetime alcohol consumption (AC) may also increase the risk of cognitive impairment. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of head circumference (HC) and lifetime AC on cognitive function in the elderly. This study is part of a large, longitudinal study of men aged 60 years or older in the Korean community. We studied 1569 subjects with complete demographic, anthropometric and AC data. Cognitive function was assessed by the Korean version of Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE). Participants reported at the time of interview their lifetime alcohol drinking patterns. HC was also measured. We did a cross-sectional analysis the relation between two factors to cognitive function. After a multivariable adjustment, the interactive effect between HC and lifetime AC was shown to be significantly associated with cognitive function (F=2.55, p=0.038). Simple main effect analysis showed that smaller HC and a high level of lifetime AC were related with decreased cognitive function. All these findings suggest the possibility that lifetime AC and HC have synergistic effects on cognitive impairment., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Sex effects on the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have received less attention than other demographic factors, including onset age and education.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether sex affected cortical thinning in the disease progression of AD.Methods: We prospectively recruited 36 patients with early-stage AD and 14 people with normal cognition. All subjects were assessed with magnetic resonance imaging at baseline, Year 1, Year 3, and Year 5. We performed cortical thickness analyses using surface-based morphometry on magnetic resonance imaging.Results: Women with AD showed more rapid cortical thinning in the left dorsolateral frontal cortex, left superior temporal gyrus, bilateral temporo-parietal association cortices, bilateral anterior cingulate gyri, bilateral medial frontal cortices, and bilateral occipital cortices over 5 years than men with AD, even though there was no difference in cortical thickness at baseline. In contrast, there were no regions of significantly more rapid atrophy in men with AD.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that women deteriorate faster than men in the progression of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim We determined if differences in renal function, even within normal levels, influenced hippocampal volume (HCV) and cognition. Methods Cognitively normal (CN) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects with eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73m2 were selected from the ADNI database ( N = 1,269) and divided into three groups (eGFR 60-75, 75-90 and ≥90). Associations between eGFR, HCV and cognition scores were examined using regression methods, and random-coefficient models. The relationship between various factors, such as vascular burden and brain amyloid deposition, were investigated using path analysis. Results Higher eGFR was associated with larger HCVs and better cognition in all subjects at baseline. In MCI subjects, hippocampal atrophy in the eGFR ≥ 90 group progressed at just half the rate of the eGFR 75-90 group ( P = .006), and was also somewhat slower than the eGFR 60-75 group ( P = .08). A comprehensive path model linking eGFR, HCV and cognition, and integrating vascular burden and amyloid deposition, is proposed. Conclusions Higher renal function was associated with slower hippocampal atrophy and cognitive decline even within normal levels of renal function. This relationship was mediated mainly through cardiovascular risk burden and amyloid deposition. Further studies examining neuroinflammation are needed. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1899-1906. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]