What is it and what does it include?
This dataset represents SYNTHETIC data generated off of the real data collected by The National Institute on Aging’s Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). It is useful for getting familiar with the BLSA data and determining whether the study houses measures of interest for your research and helping to preparing an analysis proposal; results analyses are NOT publishable in any form since the data is not real. Visit the related BLSA OPEN Data project on the AD Workbench to find related real BLSA data designated as publicly available.
How can I use this dataset to advance my research?
This dataset is ideal if:
- you’re interested in studying longitudinal physical and cognitive changes that define aging.
- you’re interested in identifying genetic, physical, behavioral, and environmental factors that affect the rate of change in these traits.
- you’re looking to understand the interrelationship between aging and chronic disease and other conditions, and their independent and joint impact on age-related decline.
Has this dataset helped researchers understand Alzheimer’s and other dementias better?
Of course!
- AD & Personality:
In 2021, researchers aimed to examine whether personality traits are associated with amyloid and tau neuropathology in a new sample and meta-analyses. Their research showed that among cognitively normal BLSA participants, neuroticism was associated with higher cortical amyloid burden, and conscientiousness was associated with lower cortical amyloid burden. These associations remained significant after accounting for age, sex, education, depressive symptoms, hippocampal volume, and APOE ε4. By aggregating results across samples, this study advances knowledge on the association between personality and neuropathology. Neuroticism and conscientiousness may contribute to resistance against amyloid and tau neuropathology. September 2021 – DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.021
- AD & mitochondrial energetics:
In 2022, researchers aimed to study whether mitochondrial dysfunction predicts subsequent mobility decline. After examining 380 cognitively normal participants aged 60 and older who were well-functioning and free of Parkinson's disease and stroke at baseline, they found that among initially well-functioning older adults, worse muscle mitochondrial function predicts mobility decline, and part of this longitudinal association is explained by decline in muscle strength and mass. Their findings suggest that worse mitochondrial function contributes to mobility decline with aging. These findings need to be verified in studies correlating longitudinal changes in mitochondrial function, muscle, and mobility performance. January 2022 – DOI: 10.1111/acel.13552
Manuscripts citing this dataset
- The BLSA has generated hundreds of scientific papers and made major contributions to our understanding of aging and the aging process. On this page, you can explore BLSA publications from 1982 to the present: publications.
Request access
Data access can be requested via AD Workbench FAIR portal here. Access requests are automatically approved upon which the dataset will be ready to be manually transferred into your workspace inbox
Data Use Agreement
Please refer to the BLSA Data Sharing Schedules, Processes and Required Agreements here and the Data Use Agreement below.
Publishing results using this dataset?
The dataset owner has specified that when publishing, presenting or otherwise disseminating results that used the BLSA synthetic dataset that the acknowledgement states:
This [publication or presentation, as applicable] is based on synthetic (simulated) publicly available data derived from The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging study (BLSA) that has been made available through the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative Workbench. The BLSA is supported by the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The authors thank the investigators, staff and participants of the BLSA study for making the original data available and the BLSA Data Science team for simulating the synthetic data. The synthetic data are useful only for project planning, proposal development and study design investigations. Any scientific results do not constitute real research findings. BLSA investigators have not contributed to nor approved, and are not in any way responsible for, the contents of this [publication or presentation, as applicable].
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