Online assessments of participants and study partners provide useful information at relatively low cost for neuroscience studies and clinical trials and may ultimately be used in routine clinical practice.

IntroductionMethods for efficiently identifying cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are a critical unmet need. The goal of this work was to validate novel online study partner (SP)-reported outcomes to identify cognitive decline in older adults.MethodsIn older adults enrolled in the Brain Health Registry, we analyzed associations between SP-reported cognitive decline, measured by the Everyday Cognition Scale, and either (1) participant cognition, assessed by Cogstate Brief Battery or (2) participant-reported diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or AD.ResultsWe found strong associations between SP-reported Everyday Cognition Scale and both Cogstate scores and participant diagnosis. The associations were cognitive domain specific, dependant on participant diagnosis, and were stronger in spouse dyads and those who knew each other longer.DiscussionCollecting SP-reported data online from a large cohort is feasible. Results support the construct validity of our approach, which has the potential to facilitate clinical AD and aging research.

Introduction This study aimed to identify the relationship of sociodemographic variables with older adults participation in an online registry for recruitment and longitudinal assessment in cognitive aging. Methods Using Brain Health Registry (BHR) data, associations between sociodemographic variables (sex, race, ethnicity, education) and registry participation outcomes (task completion, willingness to participate in future studies, referral/enrollment in other studies) were examined in adults aged 55+ (N = 35,919) using logistic regression. All models included sex, race, ethnicity, education, age, and subjective memory concern. Results Non‐white race, being Latino, and lower educational attainment were associated with decreased task completion and enrollment in additional studies. Results for sex were mixed. Discussion The findings provide novel information about engagement in online aging‐related registries, and highlight a need to develop improved engagement strategies targeting underrepresented sociodemographic groups. Increasing registry diversity will allow researchers to refer more representative populations to Alzheimer's and related dementias prevention and treatment trials.