Abstract

The epidemic of dementia is one of the greatest challenges for health care systems in the Western world. Dementia is a chronic and progressive syndrome of deterioration of cognitive ability, beyond what might be expected from normal ageing,1 and is seen in different underlying neurodegenerative diseases. The most common type of dementia among the aging population is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), characterized by an insidious but progressive impairment, often most of short-­‐term memory, language , and visuospatial functions. Some patients also develop behavioural and personality changes. Estimates of lifetime incidence for dementia are up to one in three women and one in six men.2-­‐4 These estimates may vary depending on selection of cohorts , and overestimation has recently been suggested in the United Kingdom.5 Despite such possible overestimation, AD still remains one of the most common diseases in later life, and its increase in prevalence over the last two decades has a major impact on health care facilities.

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C.M. van Duijn (Cornelia) , J.C. van Swieten (John)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
The work presented in ths thesis was conducted at the Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, and the Department of Neurology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam. The ERF study was supported by the joint grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO, 91203014), the Center for Medical Systems Biology (CMSB), Hersenstichting Nederland (project number 12F04(2).76), Internationale Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek (ISAO), Alzheimer Association project number 04516, and the Interuniversity Attraction Poles (IUAP) program. The ERF study as a part of EUROSPAN (European Special Populations Research Network) was supported by European Commission FP6 STRP grant number 018947 (LSHG-­‐CT-­‐2006-­‐01947) and also received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-­‐ 2013)/grant agreement HEALTH-­‐F4-­‐2007-­‐201413 by the European Commission under the programme "Quality of Life and Management of the Living Resources" of 5th Framework Programme (no. QLG2-­‐CT-­‐2002-­‐01254). High-­‐throughput analysis of the ERF data was supported by a joint grant from Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (NWO-­‐RFBR 047.017.043). Exome sequencing in ERF was supported by the ZonMw grant (project 91111025). Exome-­‐chip genotyping was supported by BBMRI-­‐NL. The generation and management of GWAS genotype data for the Rotterdam Study is supported by the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research NWO Investments (nr. 175.010.2005.011, 911-­‐ 03-­‐012). This study is funded by the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (014-­‐93-­‐015; RIDE2), the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) project nr. 050-­‐060-­‐810. The Rotterdam Study is funded by Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands Organization for the Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the Municipality of Rotterdam. Financial support for publication of this thesis was kindly provided by Alzheimer Nederland, the Internationale Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek and Erasmus University Rotterdam.
hdl.handle.net/1765/51634
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Ibrahim-Verbaas, C. (2014, June 10). A Genetic Epidemiological Study of Dementia and Cognitive Function. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/51634