The Healthy Cognitive Ageing Project (ELSA-HCAP)

The Healthy Cognitive Aging Project (HCAP) is a sub-study carried out within the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). The project aims to investigate dementia risk using a harmonised cognitive assessment protocol, as part of an international research collaboration funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The study involves 1,000 men and women aged 65 and over, drawn from different regions of England and Wales, who will be tested with various cognitive and neuropsychological evaluations and informant reports to discriminate between normal cognitive performance, cognitive impairment, and dementia status.

The HCAP has been designed to leverage the Health Retirement Study (HRS) international network of studies to produce comparable data on cognition and research diagnoses of dementia and mild cognitive impairment, to support joint epidemiological analysis of the aetiology and impact of cognitive decline and to make comparable national estimates of the dementia prevalence around the world. The protocol was designed to harmonise well with prior studies, including the 10/66 studies, the Rush University Memory and Aging Project and the HRS dementia study known as ADAMS. Versions of HCAP will also be conducted in the US, Mexico, India, China, and South Africa.

Data collection for this project is ongoing with current funding ensured until 2020.

Principal Investigator: Professor Andrew Steptoe

Co-Investigators: Professor David Batty (University College London), Professor Carol Brayne (University of Cambridge), Dr David Llewellyn (University of Exeter)

Collaborators: Professor David Weir (University of Michigan), Professor Kenneth Langa (University of Michigan), Professor Ian Deary (University of Edinburgh), Professor Martin Prince (King's College London)

Researcher: Dr Dorina Cadar (University College London).

Contact: Dr Dorina Cadar at d.cadar@ucl.ac.uk