Nun Study

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The Nun Study ( English Now Study , and Minnesota now study ) is a longitudinal study (longitudinal study) about the aging and the factors of Alzheimer's disease among women in the United States .

Description of the study

The study was performed by epidemiologist David Snowdon at Kentucky University (Sanders Brown Center). It ran from 1986 with the participation of about 600 American nuns of the Congregation of the Poor School Sisters of Notre Dame between the ages of 76 and 107. A special feature here is the homogeneity of the lifestyle over a very long period of time, for example with regard to nutrition, and on the method side the long duration of the longitudinal sections and the prospectiveness . Both laboratory and psychological parameters and histological sections of the brain could be used. The archives of the monasteries provided an insight into the résumé of the participants and their spiritual activities decades ago.

A striking result was the independence of the pathological findings in the brain (multiple Alzheimer's plaques) from the repeatedly ascertained intellectual performance of the same persons during their lifetime. That means: Even people who were found to have significantly altered brain findings during the dissection were able to carry out mentally demanding tasks until their death.

See also

  • The " Nurses' Health Study ", (Boston, since 1976 ; with thousands of nurses, changing cohorts)
  • The monastery study, study of life expectancy and the decisive determinants

literature

  • Marc Luy, Paola Di Giulio: The influence of behaviors and lifestyles on the gender mortality differences. Karla Gärtner, Evelyn Grünheid, Marc Luy (eds.): Lifestyles, phases of life, quality of life . Interdisciplinary analyzes of health and mortality from the BiB's life expectancy survey. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften , Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14905-9 , p. 365-392 .
  • David Snowdon: Aging with Grace. What the Nun Study Teaches Us About Leading Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Lives . Bantam, 2001, ISBN 0-553-80163-5 (English).
  • David Snowdon: Better old and healthy. Take away the horror of old age . Karl Blessing, 2001, ISBN 978-3-89667-149-3 .

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