Minding Memory

According to an estimate published in 2015, the global prevalence of dementia was projected to nearly triple between 2015 and 2050, growing from 46 million to over 130 million people globally. And of that worldwide share, 70% of those with dementia will be in low- and middle-income countries. Tackling and ideally preventing dementia requires a global perspective. In this episode, Matt & Donovan speak with Dr. Lindsay Kobayashi, a faculty member in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health whose research focuses on the social epidemiology of aging from a global perspective. Dr. Kobayashi introduces us to a whole new world of data available to help researchers tackle dementia as a global challenge.

Lindsay Kobayashi Faculty Profile: https://sph.umich.edu/faculty-profiles/kobayashi-lindsay.html

Article referenced in this episode:

Kobayashi LC, Gross AL, Gibbons LE, Tommet D, Sanders RE, Choi SE, Mukherjee S, Glymour M, Manly JJ, Berkman LF, Crane PK, Mungas DM, Jones RN. You Say Tomato, I Say Radish: Can Brief Cognitive Assessments in the U.S. Health Retirement Study Be Harmonized With Its International Partner Studies? J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2021 Oct 30;76(9):1767-1776. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa205. PMID: 33249448; PMCID: PMC8557836.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/

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For older adults living with dementia, cognitive impairment can lead to susceptibility to fraudulent activities. In this episode we’ll discuss with Dr. Duke Han from the Keck School of Medicine at USC what’s known about the intersection of aging, cognition, and susceptibility to scams.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Duke Han PhD Faculty Profile: https://profiles.sc-ctsi.org/duke.han

Additional Information:

The susceptibility to scams scale developed by James, Boyle, & Bennett (2014)* is a 5-item self-report measure in which participants rated their agreement using a 7-point Likert scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) for the following statements:

• I answer the phone whenever it rings, even if I do not know who is calling.
• I have difficulty ending a phone call, even if the caller is a telemarketer, someone I do not know, or someone I did not wish to call me.
• If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
• Persons over the age of 65 are often targeted by con-artists.
• If a telemarketer calls me, I usually listen to what they have to say.

Resources for older adults (and non-older adults) to report fraud:

U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging: Fraud Hotline | Senate Committee On Aging

Hotline: 1-855-303-9470 (open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time)

Internet Crime Compliant Center (IC3): https://Ic3.gov/

Federal Trade Commission: Reportfraud.ftc.gov/

*James BD, Boyle PA, Bennett DA. Correlates of susceptibility to scams in older adults without dementia. J Elder Abuse Negl. 2014;26(2):107-122. doi:10.1080/08946566.2013.821809

CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’re new to dementia research, you’ll soon come to find that most research papers on dementia start off something like this: “In the United States there are 5.8 million individuals living with dementia and this is expected to increase to 13 million by 2015. . . .” In this episode we discuss the study on dementia prevalence that has been cited thousands of times with one of the authors. Dr. Jennifer Weuve from Boston University joins us today. We also talk more broadly about what makes a research paper highly citable in general.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Related Links:

• CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the richest data sources available to study cognition and aging is the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). This nationally representative survey includes questions to help assess cognition, but many researchers may use this data without actually knowing the questions behind the variables—don’t be That Guy! (or Gal!) Listen to Dr. Lindsay Ryan, an HRS team member, coach Matt as he administers the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) to Donovan, who is surprisingly good at recalling types of birds.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Related Links:

• CAPRA Website: http://capra.med.umich.edu/
• Health and Retirement Study (HRS): https://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hearing loss is one of the most common conditions of aging, affecting nearly two-thirds of older adults over the age of 70, but it’s not just a matter of diminished hearing. Hearing loss can contribute to poor psychosocial outcomes for patients including loneliness, depression, and social isolation. New research also shows that hearing loss is linked to a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia. In fact, the 2024 Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention, and Care identified hearing loss as one of 14 modifiable risk factors for dementia. According to the commission, treating hearing loss could prevent up to 7% of dementia cases globally, making it one of the most impactful areas for potential prevention. This raises the question of whether use of hearing aids in people with hearing loss can reduce or mitigate this increased dementia risk.

To help us understand these connections and the latest research in this area, we are joined today by Dr. Alison Huang, an epidemiologist and Senior Research Associate from the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health. Her research studies the impact of sensory loss on cognitive and mental health in older adults. Dr. Huang was an author of the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) study, a large, multicenter randomized controlled trial that tested whether treating hearing loss in older adults could help slow cognitive decline published in the Lancet.

Alison Huang, PhD, MPH

Link to article:

Lin FR, Pike JR, Albert MS, Arnold M, Burgard S, Chisolm T, Couper D, Deal JA, Goman AM, Glynn NW, Gmelin T, Gravens-Mueller L, Hayden KM, Huang AR, Knopman D, Mitchell CM, Mosley T, Pankow JS, Reed NS, Sanchez V, Schrack JA, Windham BG, Coresh J; ACHIEVE Collaborative Research Group. Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2023 Sep 2;402(10404):786-797. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01406-X. Epub 2023 Jul 18. PMID: 37478886; PMCID: PMC10529382.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

You can subscribe to Minding Memory on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.