Biomedical subjects

Jason C Allaire

Publications and source records attributed to Jason C Allaire.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Examining the association between lung functioning and cognitive performance in African American adults.

UNLABELLED: The current study examined the extent to which pulmonary functioning, as measured by average peak expiratory flow, was related to performance on seven cognitive measures. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 396 African American adults ranging in age from 22 to 89 years. RESULTS: Lung functioning was not uniquely associated with cognitive performance in the younger adults, though it emerged as a significant predictor of individual differences in performance on the Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status even after controlling for age, education, and smoking history. Biobehavioral assessments such as the one presented here appear to provide important new insights into the sources of individual differences in cognition observed in this understudied population.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Competence in everyday activities as a predictor of cognitive risk and mortality.

This study examined the association of a performance-based measure of everyday functioning with clinically meaningful outcomes. Elderly participants in a prospective study of dementia were assessed at two occasions on the Everyday Problems Test for Cognitively Challenged Elderly (EPCCE), a performance-based measure of everyday functioning. Older adults who remained cognitively intact performed approximately 0.66 SD units higher on the EPCCE at both occasions than elders rated as impaired, when covarying on age, education, gender, and cognitive status. Relative to the nonimpaired participants, decline in EPCCE performance over a 2-year interval was significantly greater for impaired participants and those participants who transitioned from nonimpaired to impaired over the course of the study. Increased risk of mortality was associated with lower baseline scores and decline in EPCCE performance even after controlling for demographic variables and performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination. Given the clinical importance of identifying "at risk" elders for impairment, the findings from this study provide initial evidence for the predictive utility of performance-based measures of everyday functioning.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2006

Verbal learning and everyday functioning in dementia: an application of latent variable growth curve modeling.

This study used latent variable growth curve modeling to identify predictors and correlates of verbal learning over trials on a list-learning task in patients with dementia. Data from 116 patients evaluated at the Detroit satellite of the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center were incorporated in the present analyses. Patients were administered the Fuld Object Memory Evaluation, examined independently by a geriatrician, and, if appropriate, given a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease according to criteria from the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association. The presence of dementia significantly predicted both the intercept (i.e., level of performance) and the slope (i.e., learning over trials), with dementia patients demonstrating lower overall levels of performance and less verbal learning over trials. Rate of verbal learning over trials was a significant predictor of everyday functioning (instrumental activities of daily living) above and beyond general cognitive impairment and demographics.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2006

Factor structure and validity of the parenting stress index-short form.

The psychometric properties of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) were examined in a sample of 185 mothers and fathers. Factor analysis revealed 2 reasonably distinct factors involving parental distress and dysfunctional parent-child interactions. Both scales were internally consistent, and these scales were correlated with measures of parent psychopathology, parental perceptions of child adjustment, and observed parent and child behavior. PSI-SF scores were related to parent reports of child behavior 1 year later, and the Childrearing Stress subscale was a significant predictor of a parental history of abuse.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Intraindividual variability may not always indicate vulnerability in elders' cognitive performance.

This study examined consistency of performance, or intraindividual variability, in older adults' performance on 3 measures of cognitive functioning: inductive reasoning, memory, and perceptual speed. Theoretical speculation has suggested that such intraindividual variability may signal underlying vulnerability or neurologic compromise. Thirty-six participants aged 60 and older completed self-administered cognitive assessments twice a day for 60 consecutive days. Intraindividual variability was not strongly correlated among the 3 cognitive measures, but, over the course of the study, intraindividual variability was strongly intercorrelated within a task. Higher average performance on a measure was associated with greater performance variability, and follow-up analyses revealed that a higher level of intraindividual variability is positively associated with the magnitude of a person's practice-related gain on a particular measure. The authors argue that both adaptive (practice-related) and maladaptive (inconsistency-related) intraindividual variability may exist within the same individuals over time.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

Cardiovascular intraindividual variability in later life: the influence of social connectedness and positive emotions.

Healthy normotensive men and women (N=33) underwent a 60-day diary assessment of emotions and cardiovascular functioning. Individual differences in social connectedness and mood were measured in questionnaires, and positive emotions, negative emotions, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were assessed daily for 60 consecutive days. Results confirmed that the cardiovascular undoing effect of positive emotions is evident primarily in the context of negative emotional arousal. The daily associations between positive emotions and cardiovascular outcomes were linked to individual differences in social connectedness. Controlling for individual differences in mood levels, multilevel regression analyses showed that social connectedness predicted extended positive emotion, diminished SBP and DBP reactivity, and more rapid SBP recovery from daily negative emotional states.

Affect↗

PubMed2004

Relationships among health factors and everyday problem solving in african americans.

This study examined whether measures of health status enhance the prediction of performance on everyday problem solving in adult African Americans. The sample consisted of 209 community-dwelling African American adults with a mean age of 66.82 years (SD=7.95). The following variables were included in the analysis: Everyday Problems Test (EPT), summary index of chronic illnesses (cardiovascular disease, hypertension, arthritis, stroke, and diabetes), self-rated health (current health, health in the past month, health compared with others, health compared with 5 years ago), and demographic information. Using hierarchical regression and follow-up communality analysis, the authors found that the number of chronic illnesses and self-rated health as compared with 5 years prior were significant and unique predictors of performance on the EPT but did not account for all of the demographic-related variance. The results indicate that health indices contribute to the variability in everyday cognition in this understudied population.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2004

Change in cognitive capabilities in the oldest old: the effects of proximity to death in genetically related individuals over a 6-year period.

Change in cognitive abilities was assessed over a 6-year period in a sample of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twin pairs (N = 507 individuals), aged 80 and older (mean age = 83.3 years: SD = 3.1). who remained nondemented over the course of the study. Latent growth models (LGMs) show that chronological age and time to death are consistent predictors of decline in measures of memory, reasoning, speed, and verbal abilities. Multivariate LGM analysis resulted in weak and often negative correlations among rates of change between individuals within twin pairs, indicating greater differential change within twin pairs than occurs on average across twin pairs. These findings highlight several challenges for estimating genetic sources of variance in the context of compromised health and mortality-related change.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Well- and ill-defined measures of everyday cognition: relationship to older adults' intellectual ability and functional status.

The present study examined 2 approaches to the measurement of everyday cognition in older adults. Measures differing in the degree of structure offered for solving problems in the domains of medication use, financial management, and food preparation and nutrition were administered to a sample of 130 community-dwelling older adults ranging in age from 60 to 90 (M = 73 years, SD = 7.02 years). Well-defined and ill-defined everyday problem-solving measures, which varied in the amount of means-end-related information provided to participants, were used. The study found that (a) well- and ill-defined measures were moderately interrelated, (b) the 2 approaches were differentially related to basic cognitive abilities, and (c) together the 2 approaches explained over half of the variance in older adults' everyday instrumental functioning and were in fact better predictors of everyday functioning than traditional psychometric cognitive measures. Discussion focuses on the differential importance of both methods for assessing older adults' everyday cognitive functioning.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A growth curve model of learning acquisition among cognitively normal older adults.

The objective of this study was to model recall and learning on the Auditory Verbal Learning Test using latent growth curve techniques. Participants were older adults recruited for the ACTIVE cognitive intervention pilot. A series of nested models revealed that an approximately logarithmic growth curve model provided optimal fit to the data. Although recall and learning factors were statistically uncorrelated, a fitted multivariate model suggested that initial recall was significantly associated with demographic characteristics but unrelated to health factors and cognitive abilities. Individual differences in learning were related to race/ethnicity, speed of processing, verbal knowledge, and global cognitive function level. These results suggest that failing to recognize initial recall and learning as distinct constructs clouds the interpretation of supraspan memory tasks.

Aged↗