Lifestyle, multi-omics features, and preclinical dementia among Chinese: The Taizhou Imaging Study

China has the largest number of patients with dementia in the world. However, dementia in the Chinese population is still poorly understood and under-researched. Given the differences in genetic, demographic, sociocultural, lifestyle, and health profiles among Chinese and other ethnic/racial groups, it is crucial to build appropriate infrastructure for long-term longitudinal studies to advance Chinese cognitive aging and dementia research. We initiated a community-based prospective cohort-the Taizhou Imaging Study (TIS)-to accelerate the understanding of dementia and cerebrovascular diseases in Chinese. This article presents the rationale, aims, study design, and organization of TIS. In addition, we described some examples of the types of studies such a resource might support. The TIS provides a new framework for facilitating Chinese dementia research, encompassing invaluable resources including detailed epidemiological, sociocultural, neuroimaging, and omics data.

Automated summary

China has the highest number of dementia patients globally, but research in this area is still lacking. Due to differences in genetic, demographic, sociocultural, lifestyle, and health profiles among Chinese and other populations, it is crucial to establish long-term infrastructure for advancing research on cognitive aging and dementia in China.