IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v72y2017i6p937-946..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Memory Resilience to Alzheimer’s Genetic Risk: Sex Effects in Predictor Profiles

Author

Listed:
  • Kirstie L McDermott
  • G Peggy McFall
  • Shea J Andrews
  • Kaarin J Anstey
  • Roger A Dixon

Abstract

Objectives: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 and Clusterin (CLU) C alleles are risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and episodic memory (EM) decline. Memory resilience occurs when genetically at-risk adults perform at high and sustained levels. We investigated whether (a) memory resilience to AD genetic risk is predicted by biological and other risk markers and (b) the prediction profiles vary by sex and AD risk variant. Method: Using a longitudinal sample of nondemented adults (n = 642, aged 53–95) we focused on memory resilience (over 9 years) to 2 AD risk variants (APOE, CLU). Growth mixture models classified resilience. Random forest analysis, stratified by sex, tested the predictive importance of 22 nongenetic risk factors from 5 domains (n = 24–112).Results: For both sexes, younger age, higher education, stronger grip, and everyday novel cognitive activity predicted memory resilience. For women, 9 factors from functional, health, mobility, and lifestyle domains were also predictive. For men, only fewer depressive symptoms was an additional important predictor. The prediction profiles were similar for APOE and CLU. Discussion: Although several factors predicted resilience in both sexes, a greater number applied only to women. Sex-specific mechanisms and intervention targets are implied.

Suggested Citation

  • Kirstie L McDermott & G Peggy McFall & Shea J Andrews & Kaarin J Anstey & Roger A Dixon, 2017. "Memory Resilience to Alzheimer’s Genetic Risk: Sex Effects in Predictor Profiles," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 72(6), pages 937-946.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:72:y:2017:i:6:p:937-946.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw161
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:72:y:2017:i:6:p:937-946.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.