RESEARCH STUDIES
CHAP
The CHAP study is a longitudinal study of 10,802 African Americans (63%) and European Americans (37%) from Chicago’s south side performed from 1993 to 2012. CHAP’s primary objective was to study the epidemiology of common chronic health conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and associated disorders. The CHAP study collected data on the original cohort (N=6,641) and four successive cohorts to replenish the aging population. The assessments were performed triennially during in-home interviews and collected neuropsychological tests on episodic memory, executive functioning, and the MMSE. A clinical diagnosis for Alzheimer's disease was performed in a stratified random sample.
The CHAP study serves as a rich data source with self-reported interview data on demographics, health, neuropsychological tests, clinical diagnosis of AD and MCI, brain MRI characteristics, blood biomarkers, and genotyped data.
PORCH
The PORCH study is a second-generation population-based epidemiological study to examine the role of parental protective factors of Alzheimer’s dementia and improved cognitive resilience in old age on the children’s risk to reduce future risk of Alzheimer’s disease and improved cognitive and cardiovascular health characteristics. The population-based study performs biennial assessments and collects a wide range of cognitive, cardiovascular, behavioral, lifestyle, and neuroimaging data. The second-generation PORCH study is supported by National Institutes of Health study grants.
The PORCH study’s objectives are to enhance the current understanding of cognitive resilience in old age and help focus on these resilience factors that might help offspring with better cognitive and brain health in community-based midlife adults between the ages of 40 and 59 living in the southside of Chicago consisting of 50% African Americans and 50% women.