introduction

With life expectancy increasing across the world, Alzheimer's disease (AD) poses an increasing medical and socioeconomic challenge.

Currently there is no certain method of detecting whether a person is likely to develop AD and the development of lifestyle interventions to prevent or delay the onset of AD would have significant effects at the population level.

Treatment strategies for AD are likely to be most effective if administered early and the AIBL Study aims to improve understanding of the causes and diagnosis of AD, to help identify preventative strategies.

Clinical, neurophysical and lifestyle data collected from a cohort of elderly participants with AD, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and no reported health problems will be examined.

study cohort

Recruitment commenced in 2007 and has been on a volunteer basis. A total of 1112 participants from Western Australia(40%) and Victoria(60%) have been enrolled in the AIBL study.

Basic inclusion criteria for the AIBL study required that each participant be aged 60years of age or older at the time of recruitment, English speaking and, if applicable, have stable medications (e.g. controlled hypertension).

Additionally, Alzheimer's participants were required to have a CDR of 0.5, 1 or 2, to meet the NINDCDS/ ADRDA, ICD-10 & DSM-IV criertia for probable or possible AD and to have a reliable informant with contact of a least ten hours per week.

Recruitment for the AIBL study has now closed.

data collection

At study commencement, study participants underwent a comprehensive examination, comprising neuropsychological and clinical assessments and health and lifestyle factors assessments. A fasting blood sample (80ml) was taken from each participant and neuroimaging carried out on 250 of those enrolled in the study.

A second data collection began mid 2008 and is due to complete in December 2009. Study participants are undergoing a repeat neuropsychological and clinical assessment and providing a further sample of blood. Those participants who underwent a neuroimaging scan are being asked to do so again.