Dr. Abner acknowledged certain limitations of the study, including the fact that most clinical impairments had not yet been confirmed by medical review. In addition, socioeconomic status exposures that are relevant to midlife were not measured, which may mitigate the effect observed for African American ethnicity. “Also, many of our black participants were recruited from Veterans Affairs sites, so their exposures may be qualitatively different in terms of their risk of head trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Overall, the sample was highly educated and healthy,” said Dr. Abner. Screening of the full PREADVISE cohort is expected to be complete early this year.
—Doug Brunk