Introduction to the Cohort
Kaiser Permanente of Northern California is a non-profit, group-practice health insurance program. Kaiser Permanente members are representative of the socio-demographic profile of the local population. This prospective cohort, nested within all members of the KPNC program, includes 10,136 members who participated in voluntary periodic Multiphasic Health Checkups (MHC) between 1964 and 1973 when they were 40-45 years old. At the MHCs participants were interviewed and information on demographics, lifestyle, and medical history was collected. Electronic medical records were searched in 1994 for diagnosis of AD or VaD.
Ethnicity Breakdown
Twenty-six percent of participants were non-caucasian. No other information on ethnicity was provided.
Diagnosis & Evaluation Methods
Diagnoses of dementia or AD were based on particular ICD9 codes (3331.0 and 290.4) from Neurology visits or hospitalizations, but not from primary care physicians. AD and VaD status were ascertained from 1994 to 2006 when participatns were 65-88 years old.
For a detailed description, see Whitmer et al. 2007.
References
Whitmer R, Gunderson E, Quesenberry Jr. C, et al. Body mass index in midlife and risk of Alzheimer Disease and vascular dementia. Current Alzheimer Research. 2007; 4:103-109.
