# PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN OLDEST-OLD

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 1993 · $296,670

## Abstract

The long-term objectives of this research are to understand the
psychosocial, behavioral and biomedical determinants of differential
trajectories of physical and cognitive function in the elderly. We are
especially interested in identifying protective factors that promote the
retention of higher levels of cognitive or physical function into very old
age or those that promote resilience or ability to recover after
significant medical events. We aim to accomplish this by conducting an 11
year follow-up survey of the New Haven EPESE, a community-based
epidemiologic cohort study of 2812 men and women who were living, non-
institutionalized in New Haven, CT in 1982. The cohort has been under
continual surveillance for hospitalization, nursing home admission, and
mortality since 1982. Subjects have had in-depth face-to-face  assessments
of physical and cognitive function in 1982, 1985, and 1988 with briefer
telephone contacts in interim years. 1457 subjects were alive at the end
of 1991. Approximately 1250 will be available to participate in a fourth
face-to-face assessment. We propose to reinterview and re-examine subjects
in 1993-1994, conduct surveillance in all 3 years and analyses in Years 02
and 03.

The specific aims are:

1. To determine and describe the cognitive and physical abilities of a
population-based cohort of men and women all of whom will be at least 75
years of age in 1993 and for whom there will be 11 years of data on
longitudinal changes in function.

2. To test hypotheses concerning the role of socioeconomic status, social
networks and support, social participation, health practices such as
smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity and biomedical risk
factors such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes in predicting
the retention or decline in physical and cognitive function.

3. To obtain detailed clinical information on three acute-onset medical
events: MI, stroke, and hip fracture and investigate the factors that
predict long-term course of cognitive and physical function and risk of
institutionalization controlling for detailed clinical conditions related
to prognosis.

The strengths of this study are 1)its heterogeneous population-based
sample with high response rates (between 90-97%) on all follow-up surveys
and less than 1% of subjects lost to follow-up; 2)a decade of rich
longitudinal data on both risk and protective factors and outcomes; 3)
multiple hospital and long-term care surveillance systems which identify
and verify over 95% of such events; 4)a cohort which is now entering its
period of highest risk.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3123031
- **Project number:** 1R01AG011042-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** FL6GV84CKN57
- **Principal Investigator:** LISA F BERKMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $296,670
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 1993-09-30 → 1996-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3123031

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3123031, PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN OLDEST-OLD (1R01AG011042-01A1). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3123031. Licensed CC0.

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