Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Self-Reported Sleep Apnea And Dementia Risk: Findings From The Prevention Of Alzheimer's Disease With Vitamin E And Selenium Trial, Xiuhua Ding, Richard J. Kryscio, Joshua Turner, Gregory A. Jicha, Gregory E. Cooper, Allison M. Caban-Holt, Frederick A. Schmitt, Erin L. Abner

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between baseline sleep apnea and risk of incident dementia in the Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease with Vitamin E and Selenium (PREADViSE) study and to explore whether the association depends on apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 allele status.

DESIGN: Secondary analysis based on data collected during PREADViSE.

SETTING: Participants were assessed at 128 local clinical study sites during the clinical trial phase and later were followed by telephone from a centralized location.

PARTICIPANTS: Men enrolled in PREADViSE (without dementia or other active neurological conditions that affect cognition such as major psychiatric disorders, including depression; N = …

Diabetes Is Associated With Cerebrovascular But Not Alzheimer's Disease Neuropathology, Erin L. Abner, Peter T. Nelson, Richard J. Kryscio, Frederick A. Schmitt, David W. Fardo, Randall L. Woltjer, Nigel J. Cairns, Lei Yu, Hiroko H. Dodge, Chengjie Xiong, Kamal Masaki, Suzanne L. Tyas, David A. Bennett, Julie A. Schneider, Zoe Arvanitakis

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: The relationship of diabetes to specific neuropathologic causes of dementia is incompletely understood.

METHODS: We used logistic regression to evaluate the association between diabetes and infarcts, Braak neurofibrillary tangle stage, and neuritic plaque score in 2365 autopsied persons. In a subset of >1300 persons with available cognitive data, we examined the association between diabetes and cognition using Poisson regression.

RESULTS: Diabetes increased odds of brain infarcts (odds ratio [OR] = 1.57, P < .0001), specifically lacunes (OR = 1.71, P < .0001), but not Alzheimer's disease neuropathology. Diabetes plus infarcts was associated with lower cognitive scores at end of life than infarcts or diabetes alone, and diabetes plus high level of Alzheimer's neuropathologic changes was associated with lower mini-mental state examination scores than the pathology alone.

DISCUSSION: This study supports the conclusions that diabetes increases the risk of cerebrovascular but not Alzheimer's disease pathology, and at least some of diabetes' relationship to …

Partner Interfering Behaviors Affecting Cancer Quality Of Life, Ann L. Coker, Diane R. Follingstad, Lisandra S. Garcia, Heather M. Bush

Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Publications

Objective: Because partners are an important and unpaid resource in cancer care, understanding how destructive, controlling or interfering partner behaviors influence women's cancer care may be particularly relevant for health care providers seeking to provide cancer care and enhance recovery. Using a new measure of partner interfering behaviors in cancer care (PIB-C), we investigated whether women with a recent cancer diagnosis who additionally endorsed any PIB-C would report (a) more symptoms of depression and stress, and (b) lower Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G) and lower Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-being (FACIT-SP) scale scores indicating poorer quality of …

Uncovering Local Trends In Genetic Effects Of Multiple Phenotypes Via Functional Linear Models, Olga A. Vsevolozhskaya, Dmitri V. Zaykin, David A. Barondess, Xiaoren Tong, Sneha Jadhav, Qing Lu

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Recent technological advances equipped researchers with capabilities that go beyond traditional genotyping of loci known to be polymorphic in a general population. Genetic sequences of study participants can now be assessed directly. This capability removed technology-driven bias toward scoring predominantly common polymorphisms and let researchers reveal a wealth of rare and sample-specific variants. Although the relative contributions of rare and common polymorphisms to trait variation are being debated, researchers are faced with the need for new statistical tools for simultaneous evaluation of all variants within a region. Several research groups demonstrated flexibility and good statistical power of the functional linear …

Motorcycle Helmet Effectiveness In Reducing Head, Face And Brain Injuries By State And Helmet Law, Cody S. Olsen, Andrea M. Thomas, Michael Singleton, Anna M. Gaichas, Tracy J. Smith, Gary A. Smith, Justin Peng, Michael J. Bauer, Ming Qu, Denise Yeager, Timothy Kerns, Cynthia Burch, Lawrence J. Cook

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: Despite evidence that motorcycle helmets reduce morbidity and mortality, helmet laws and rates of helmet use vary by state in the U.S.

Methods: We pooled data from eleven states: five with universal laws requiring all motorcyclists to wear a helmet, and six with partial laws requiring only a subset of motorcyclists to wear a helmet. Data were combined in the Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System's General Use Model and included motorcycle crash records probabilistically linked to emergency department and inpatient discharges for years 2005-2008. Medical outcomes were compared between partial and universal helmet law settings. We estimated adjusted relative …

Alzheimer's Biomarkers Are Correlated With Brain Connectivity In Older Adults Differentially During Resting And Task States, Yang Jiang, Haiqing Huang, Erin Abner, Lucas S. Broster, Gregory A. Jicha, Frederick A. Schmitt, Richard Kryscio, Anders H. Andersen, David Powell, Linda J. Van Eldik, Brian T. Gold, Peter T. Nelson, Charles D. Smith, Mingzhou Ding

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and tau-related neurodegeneration are pathologic hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The utility of AD biomarkers, including those measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), in predicting future AD risk and cognitive decline is still being refined. Here, we explored potential relationships between functional connectivity (FC) patterns within the default-mode network (DMN), age, CSF biomarkers (Aβ₄₂ and pTau₁₈₁), and cognitive status in older adults. Multiple measures of FC were explored, including a novel time series-based measure [total interdependence (TI)]. In our sample of 27 cognitively normal older adults, no significant associations were found between levels of Aβ …

Evaluating A Bystander Intervention Program On Reproductive Coercion: Using Quasi-Experimental Design Strategies To Address Methodologic Issues In Randomized Community Prevention Trials, Catherine P. Starnes

Theses and Dissertations--Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Community (or cluster) randomized trials are trials in which communities or groups of individuals (clusters) are randomized to receive the intervention of interest. Community randomized trials frequently more closely resemble a natural experiment than a randomized controlled trial (RCT) following intervention allocation. In particular, the effects of non-compliance can pose methodologic challenges in estimating the intervention effect which may require a quasiexperimental approach in order to minimize bias.

The motivating example to illustrate these issues is the Green Dot High School (GDHS) study. The GDHS study was a longitudinal, cluster-randomized controlled trial designed to assess the effectiveness of a bystander …