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Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene

One of the strongest risk factors for dementia is the ε4 variant of the APOE gene. Yet, many who carry it never develop dementia. The current study examined for the first time whether positive age beliefs that are acquired from the culture may reduce the risk of developing dementia among older indiv...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Levy, Becca R., Slade, Martin D., Pietrzak, Robert H., Ferrucci, Luigi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5802444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29414991
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191004
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author Levy, Becca R.
Slade, Martin D.
Pietrzak, Robert H.
Ferrucci, Luigi
author_facet Levy, Becca R.
Slade, Martin D.
Pietrzak, Robert H.
Ferrucci, Luigi
author_sort Levy, Becca R.
collection PubMed
description One of the strongest risk factors for dementia is the ε4 variant of the APOE gene. Yet, many who carry it never develop dementia. The current study examined for the first time whether positive age beliefs that are acquired from the culture may reduce the risk of developing dementia among older individuals, including those who are APOE ε4 carriers. The cohort consisted of 4,765 Health and Retirement Study participants who were aged 60 or older and dementia-free at baseline. As predicted, in the total sample those with positive age beliefs at baseline were significantly less likely to develop dementia, after adjusting for relevant covariates. Among those with APOE ε4, those with positive age beliefs were 49.8% less likely to develop dementia than those with negative age beliefs. The results of this study suggest that positive age beliefs, which are modifiable and have been found to reduce stress, can act as a protective factor, even for older individuals at high risk of dementia.
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spelling pubmed-58024442018-02-23 Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene Levy, Becca R. Slade, Martin D. Pietrzak, Robert H. Ferrucci, Luigi PLoS One Research Article One of the strongest risk factors for dementia is the ε4 variant of the APOE gene. Yet, many who carry it never develop dementia. The current study examined for the first time whether positive age beliefs that are acquired from the culture may reduce the risk of developing dementia among older individuals, including those who are APOE ε4 carriers. The cohort consisted of 4,765 Health and Retirement Study participants who were aged 60 or older and dementia-free at baseline. As predicted, in the total sample those with positive age beliefs at baseline were significantly less likely to develop dementia, after adjusting for relevant covariates. Among those with APOE ε4, those with positive age beliefs were 49.8% less likely to develop dementia than those with negative age beliefs. The results of this study suggest that positive age beliefs, which are modifiable and have been found to reduce stress, can act as a protective factor, even for older individuals at high risk of dementia. Public Library of Science 2018-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5802444/ /pubmed/29414991 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191004 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Levy, Becca R.
Slade, Martin D.
Pietrzak, Robert H.
Ferrucci, Luigi
Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene
title Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene
title_full Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene
title_fullStr Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene
title_full_unstemmed Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene
title_short Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene
title_sort positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5802444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29414991
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191004
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