Due to population ageing, dementia has become a major public health concern. The aim of this project is to test the hypothesis that stress across the life course may be harmful for the central nervous system increasing the risk of dementia at older ages. Accordingly, we will examine prospectively the association of stress in early life, midlife and late life with risk of cognitive decline and clinical dementia and the extent to which these associations are mediated or modified by established risk factors and physical and mental comorbidity. We will also explore biomarkers that may underlie the associations between stress, preclinical cognitive decline and clinical dementia. This project uses individual-level data from up to 39 prospective population-based cohort studies and more than 1 million participants, and biomarker data, including 5000 proteins, from cohort studies with 20- to 30-year follow-ups of health.

2022

2026