Monongahela Valley Independent Elders Survey (MoVIES)

Epidemiology of Dementia: a Prospective Community Study, aka, the Monongahela Valley Independent Elders Survey, was supported in part by the NIA under cooperative agreement #AG06782 (Principal Investigator: Lewis Kuller) and research grant #AG07562 (Principal Investigator: Mary Ganguli) 1989-2002.

The MoVIES project investigated various aspects of normal and abnormal aging.  It also studied the incidence, risk factors, and outcome in late-life dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, in a prospective community-based epidemiologic study for 15 years.  The study cohort was drawn from a rural, largely blue-collar community in the mid-Monongahela Valley of Southwestern Pennsylvania.  The original cohort of 1,681 individuals aged 65+ years was assembled between 1987 and 1989 and was followed until 2002 with multi-stage clinical “Waves” of cognitive and risk factor screening.  Screening waves were interspersed with multi-stage clinical evaluations to detect the presence of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

For a brief slide show reviewing the study background and design, click here

We acknowledge support from the Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging (NNA) Program, National Institute on Aging (NIA); in particular, the encouragement received from Teresa S. Radebaugh, ScD, former Chief, Dementia of Aging Branch, and other program staff during the course of this project.