Healthy Aging and Dementia: Findings from the Nun Study

Healthy Aging and Dementia: Findings from the Nun Study

David A. Snowdon, PhD

From the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.

Abstract

The Nun Study is a longitudinal study of 678 Catholic sisters 75 to 107 years of age who are members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame congregation. Data collected for this study include early and middle-life risk factors from the convent archives, annual cognitive and physical function evaluations during old age, and postmortem neuropathologic evaluations of the participants' brains. The case histories presented include a centenarian who was a model of healthy aging, a 92-year-old with dementia and clinically significant Alzheimer disease neuropathology and vascular lesions, a cognitively and physically intact centenarian with almost no neuropathology, and an 85-year-old with well-preserved cognitive and physical function despite a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer disease and an abundance of Alzheimer disease lesions. These case histories provide examples of how healthy aging and dementia relate to the degree of pathology present in the brain and the level of resistance to the clinical expression of the neuropathology.

Article and Author Information

Acknowledgments: The author thanks the members, leaders, and health care providers of the School Sisters of Notre Dame religious congregation. Dr. William R. Markesbery generously provided scientific advice, as well as all neuropathologic evaluations. Sister Gabriel Mary Spaeth completed most of the annual functional evaluations, and Gari-Anne Patzwald provided editorial assistance.
Grant Support: By the U.S. National Institute on Aging grants R01AG09862 (D. Snowdon), K04AG00553 (D. Snowdon), and 5P50AG05144 (W. Markesbery); the Abercrombie Foundation; and the Kleberg Foundation. Abstracts of all Nun Study publications and other information about the study can be found at http://www.nunstudy.org.
Requests for Single Reprints: David A. Snowdon, PhD, Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, 320 Health Sciences Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536-0200; e-mail, dsnowdon{at}nunstudy.mi8.com.