Alzheimer Disease: Clues from Convents

▪ 2002

      An ongoing study of a highly cooperative group of long-lived nuns has been shedding considerable light on aging and Alzheimer disease. The Nun Study, led by neurologist David Snowdon of the University of Kentucky, began in 1986 and has focused on 678 American members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a Roman Catholic religious congregation. When the study began, the sisters ranged in age from 75 to 102 years. All agreed to undergo yearly physical and cognitive-function exams and to donate their brains for study at death.

      As a piece of scientific research, the Nun Study has obvious limitations—the outcomes cannot always be generalized to the population at large. On the other hand, because the nuns share so many key lifestyle factors—e.g., ethnicity (Caucasian), reproductive history, occupation, and access to health care—the conclusions drawn about their aging processes are less likely to be confounded by differences in individual experiences.

      Another singular aspect of the Nun Study is the researchers' access to the convent archives, ranging from birth certificates to socioeconomic, educational, residential, social, and occupational data. The data that have excited Snowdon the most, however, are those acquired in face-to-face interviews. Recalling his first meeting with residents of a Minnesota convent, Snowdon said, “It shattered all my stereotypes of how 80- and 90-year-old people are supposed to behave.”

      The insights that scientists have gleaned from this distinctive group are varied. For example, results of studies published in 2001 noted a connection between the nuns' outlook early in life and their longevity. Investigators analyzed autobiographies composed by 180 sisters at the time they took their vows (between ages 18 and 32). Although the majority of this group lived to a ripe old age, those who revealed positive emotions in young adulthood lived about seven years longer—to a median age of 93¹/₂—than their more negative-thinking counterparts.

      Snowdon's team also found links in the nuns' autobiographies to changes in their cognitive abilities with age. Sisters who showed “low linguistic ability” as young adults were found more likely to experience declines in language facility as they aged and to develop dementia in later life. In postmortem studies the brains of nuns whose linguistic ability had been rated low had clear pathological evidence of Alzheimer disease. The researchers surmised that less-than-optimal brain development might have predisposed those nuns to the disease.

      Although these and other results from the Nun Study are highly intriguing and suggestive, they are not yet conclusive. As Snowdon and his team gather more data, they will undoubtedly establish clearer cause-and-effect relationships.

Ellen Bernstein

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