The Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Medical Records Abstraction Project: A Resource for Research on Biological, Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors on the Aging Brain and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.

BACKGROUND

Adult Changes in Thought (ACT), a prospective cohort study, enrolls older adult members of Kaiser Permanente Washington. We describe an ambitious project to abstract medical records facilitating epidemiological investigation.

METHODS

Abstracted data include medications; laboratory results; women's health; blood pressure; physical injuries; cardiovascular, neurological, psychiatric and other medical conditions.

RESULTS

Of 1419 of 5763 participants with completed abstractions, 1387 (97.7%) were deceased; 602 (42.4%) were diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias; 985 (69.4%) had a brain autopsy. Each participant had an average of 34.3 (SD = 13.4) years of data abstracted. Over 64% had pharmacy data preceding 1977; 87.5% had laboratory data preceding 1988. Stroke, anxiety, depression and confusion during hospitalization were common among participants diagnosed with dementia.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical records are transformed into data for analyses with outcomes derived from other ACT data. We provide detailed, unparalleled longitudinal clinical data to support a variety of epidemiological research on clinical-pathological correlations.