The Religious Orders Study supports a variety of studies by investigators at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and across the county, including studies of the transition from normal brain function to mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease; studies linking complex post-mortem findings to change in different cognitive abilities over multiple years prior to death; and studies that explore the biologic mechanisms linking risk factors to post-mortem findings to the clinical manifestations of disease proximate to death.

The Religious Orders Study continues to build on its success during the past funding period and continues recruiting and performing annual evaluations on older members of Catholic Religious Communities without dementia with an emphasis on enrolling African American and Hispanic Catholic clergy. More than 1000 participants from about 40 groups from across the United States have enrolled. The overall follow-up rate exceeds 95 percent and the autopsy rate exceeds 90 percent.

The Religious Orders Study continues to recruit new participants from existing facilities.