The Effects of Virtual Reality Applications on Perceived Stress, Anxiety and Fatigue Among Nurses Working in the Intensive Care Unit.

The number of people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) is expected to dramatically increase as our population ages., , Dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are more prevalent in women, and this higher prevalence cannot be explained solely by their longer life expectancy., , , Estrogen may play a role in supporting cognitive function, and its decreasing levels during menopause may contribute to a higher prevalence of AD in women., , , , , Yet, the role of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in dementia is controversial, with inconsistent results from multiple clinical studies. Numerous observational studies have shown associations between HRT use and a lower risk of dementia., , , , , However, the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS), a large randomized clinical trial, found that the use of HRT was associated with an increased risk of probable dementia in women aged 65 years and older. Limbic‐predominant age‐related transactive response DNA‐binding protein 43 (TDP‐43) encephalopathy (LATE) is a recently described cause of dementia in older adults, characterized neuropathologically by the deposition of TDP‐43 predominantly in limbic brain structures. LATE is a predominantly amnestic syndrome that has many features in common with clinical AD. Moreover, the prevalence of LATE neuropathological change (LATE‐NC) increases with age, second only to AD neuropathological change (ADNC) at advanced ages, and frequently co‐occurs with ADNC., , , , In addition, in older adults, LATE‐NC has a strong association with dementia independent of other neuropathologies and accounts for 13% of all dementia cases, a proportion higher than other dementia‐related neuropathologies except ADNC. The number of people with LATE is expected to substantially increase with the aging of our population,, , and because women generally live longer than men, they face a higher lifetime risk of LATE‐NC. Little is known about factors related to LATE‐NC. In the 90+ Study, a community‐based longitudinal study of people aged 90 years and older, women who used long‐term HRT in their 50s and 60s had significantly lower odds of LATE‐NC when they passed away in the 10th and 11th decades of their lives. In contrast, HRT use was not related to ADNC or other dementia‐related neuropathological changes. Given this finding of HRT as a potential protective factor against LATE‐NC, exploring the association between HRT and LATE‐NC in other cohorts is essential. In this project, we sought to replicate our previous findings from the 90+ Study using data from the Rush Religious Orders Study (ROS) and the Memory and Aging Project (MAP). We examined the association between HRT and other reproductive variables in relation to LATE‐NC. In addition, we compared the odds of LATE‐NC between females who used HRT, females who did not use HRT, and males.