About the Authors

Laura E. Middleton

Affiliation Geriatric Medicine Research Unit, Centre for Health Care of the Elderly, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Arnold Mitnitski

Affiliation Geriatric Medicine Research Unit, Centre for Health Care of the Elderly, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Nader Fallah

Affiliation Geriatric Medicine Research Unit, Centre for Health Care of the Elderly, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Susan A. Kirkland

Affiliation Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Kenneth Rockwood

kenneth.rockwood@dal.ca

Affiliation Geriatric Medicine Research Unit, Centre for Health Care of the Elderly, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Competing Interests

In the last 5 years, Kenneth Rockwood has received speaking and/or consulting fees from Glaxo Smith Kline, Janssen Ortho, Lundbeck, Merck, Myriad, Novartis, Numico and Pfizer and holds a research grant from Janssen, through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Research and Development program. He is President and majority shareholder of DementiaGuide, Inc., a web-based symptom guide for people with dementia. Our work includes no data on medications or dementia symptoms. Dr. Mitnitski, Dr. Kirkland, and Ms. Middleton have no conflicts of interest.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LEM KR. Analyzed the data: LEM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KR. Wrote the paper: LEM SAK KR. Senior investigator of the CSHA, collected data and supervised local data collection at each wave: KR. Secured funding for the study and these analyses: KR. Drafted various aspects of the paper: KR. Conducted the analyses: LEM. Verified the analyses and developed procedures for model adjustment: ABM NF. Read and approved the final version of the manuscript: KR LEM ABM NF SAK.