GCSDB: an integrated database system for the Georgia Centenarian Study

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Abstract

GCSDB is a web-oriented integrated database system for the Georgia Centenarian Study, a phase III, population-based, multidisciplinary study of centenarians. The Study recruited 244 centenarians and near-centenarians (age 98 and older), 80 octogenarians and 400 young controls in Northern Georgia. GCSDB incorporates more than 40 relational tables containing data about the participants including demographics, family longevity, physical health, cognition, neuropsychology, mental health, neuropathology, functional capacity, and genetics. The GCSDB web site includes detailed information about these tables and functions for genetic and other kinds of data analysis. More data and functions will be added as the study progresses. GCSDB provides a resource that could be used to identify what biological, psychological, and social factors as well as their epistatic interactions help these centenarians achieve long life.

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Most cited references 33

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Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report.

J Yesavage, T. Brink, T Rose … (1982)

A new Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) designed specifically for rating depression in the elderly was tested for reliability and validity and compared with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS-D) and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). In constructing the GDS a 100-item questionnaire was administered to normal and severely depressed subjects. The 30 questions most highly correlated with the total scores were then selected and readministered to new groups of elderly subjects. These subjects were classified as normal, mildly depressed or severely depressed on the basis of Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for depression. The GDS, HRS-D and SDS were all found to be internally consistent measures, and each of the scales was correlated with the subject's number of RDC symptoms. However, the GDS and the HRS-D were significantly better correlated with RDC symptoms than was the SDS. The authors suggest that the GDS represents a reliable and valid self-rating depression screening scale for elderly populations.

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Biodemographic trajectories of longevity.

J Vaupel, J. Carey, K. Christensen … (1998)

Old-age survival has increased substantially since 1950. Death rates decelerate with age for insects, worms, and yeast, as well as humans. This evidence of extended postreproductive survival is puzzling. Three biodemographic insights--concerning the correlation of death rates across age, individual differences in survival chances, and induced alterations in age patterns of fertility and mortality--offer clues and suggest research on the failure of complicated systems, on new demographic equations for evolutionary theory, and on fertility-longevity interactions. Nongenetic changes account for increases in human life-spans to date. Explication of these causes and the genetic license for extended survival, as well as discovery of genes and other survival attributes affecting longevity, will lead to even longer lives.

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Genetic associations with human longevity at the APOE and ACE loci.

F Schachter, L Faure-Delanef, F Guénot … (1994)

In an effort to dissect the genetic components of longevity, we have undertaken case-control studies of populations of centenarians (n = 338) and adults aged 20-70 years at several polymorphic candidate gene loci. Here we report results on two genes, chosen for their impact on cardiovascular risk, encoding apolipoprotein E (ApoE), angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). We find that the epsilon 4 allele of APOE, which promotes premature atherosclerosis, is significantly less frequent in centenarians than in controls (p < 0.001), while the frequency of the epsilon 2 allele, associated previously with type III and IV hyperlipidemia, is significantly increased (p < 0.01). A variant of ACE which predisposes to coronary heart disease is surprisingly more frequent in centenarians, with a significant increase of the homozygous genotype (p < 0.01). These associations provide examples of genetic influences on differential survival and may point to pleiotropic age-dependent effects on longevity.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Bioinformation

Journal ID (publisher-id): Bioinformation

Title: Bioinformation

Publisher: Biomedical Informatics Publishing Group

ISSN (Electronic): 0973-2063

Publication date Collection: 2006

Publication date (Electronic): 7 October 2006

Volume: 1

Issue: 6

Pages: 214-219

Affiliations

[1 ]Temple University

[2 ]The University of Georgia

[3 ]FN Duke University Medical Center

[4 ]The Georgia Centenarian Study

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[* ]Jonathan Arnold E-mail: arnold@ 123456uga.edu ; Corresponding author

Article

Publisher ID: 55-1-2006

PMC ID: 1891685

PubMed ID: 17597891

SO-VID: c11d9957-30dd-4e08-a65f-758bba835241

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This is an open-access article, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited.

GCSDB: an integrated database system for the Georgia Centenarian Study

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Arabidopsis genomics

Most cited references 33

Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report.

Biodemographic trajectories of longevity.

Genetic associations with human longevity at the APOE and ACE loci.

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