Dorina Cadar
Dorina Cadar is a Career Develoment Fellow at the MRC Unit for
Lifelong Health and Ageing. She is particularly interested in
examining the interindividual variability of cognitive ageing, and
in particular why some individuals experience faster rates of
cognitive decline compared to others. She focuses on the various
determinants of mental capabilities across the life-course and
specifically on the lifestyle risk factors for cognitive decline
and incidence of dementia.
She currently works on a project funded by the Alzheimer’s
Society (PI Dr Graciela Muniz-Terrera), which aims to synthesise
evidence about the effect of education on within-person
trajectories of cognitive decline in global and specific cognitive
abilities induced by ageing, dementia and proximity to death.
Dorina holds a Bsc (Hons) in Psychology from Birkbeck College,
University of London in 2008, an MSc in Clinical Neuroscience from
Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and a PhD in
Cognitive Epidemiology from the Faculty of Population Health
Sciences, University College London. Dorina currently undertakes
further training in Cognitive Ageing Research Methods for Medical
Scientists (PgCert-distance learning) at the College of Medicine
and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh. Her PhD thesis
has investigated the role of individual and combined lifestyle
behaviours on cognitive functioning and on cognitive decline using
data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.
She is an active member of Alzheimer’s Society; British
Psychological Society; Gerontological Society of America; Society
for Social Medicine and UK Society for Behavioural Medicine.
In 2012, Dorina was awarded a MRC Centenary Grant to take
further methodological training and to establish international
research collaborations. In the same year, she was awarded a
Wellcome Trust Grant to design and conduct a Public Engagement
Project named “Use it; don’t lose it!” promoting the role of
physical activity in early midlife with the ultimate scope of
preventing cognitive decline and dementia.
http://www.facebook.com/UseItDontLoseIt
http://www.scoop.it/t/use-it-don-t-lose-it
This project will be showcased at the Big Bang event in London
14-17th 2013 and other MRC Centenary events taking place in June
2013.
In 2010, Dorina won the First Year Project Award by Professor
Michael Marmot and Professor Andrew Steptoe from UCL Faculty of
Population Health and the second place at Shape of Science
Symposium for her poster titled: “Is the freedom from cognitive
impairment really at hand? An investigation between alcohol
consumption and cognitive functioning”. The competition was open to
doctoral and post doctoral researchers from UK and EU.
http://www.shapeofscience.manchester.ac.uk/postercall/
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1008/10080301
Selected publications/ conference
presentations
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G., Stephen A., Kuh D. &
Richards M. The role of lifestyle behaviours on 20-year cognitive
decline. Journal of Aging Research; 2012:304014. Epub 2012 Sep 4.
PMID: 2298850 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22988508
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G., Nip W., Stephen A., Kuh D.
& Richards M. Increased adherence to Mediterranean Diet
protects memory decline over 20 years in a longitudinal study. The
Lancet Vol 380, Abstracts 12TL4945, Oral presentation at the Public
Health Science Conference, 23 November 2012, Royal Society for
Medicine, London, UK http://www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/epd01.php
Cadar D; Pikhart H; Mishra G; Stephen A, Kuh D. & Richards
M. The role of lifestyle behaviours on 20 years cognitive: findings
from a British Birth Cohort Study. Oral presentation at the Society
for Longitudinal and Life course Studies Annual Meeting, 29-31
October 2012, Paris, France (EUCCONET Student Bursary)
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G., Stephen A., Kuh D. &
Richards M. Maybe is what we do! Health related behaviours on
cognitive decline from mid to later life in 1946 British Birth
Cohort! Oral presentation at the World Psychiatric Association
International Congress, 17–21 October 2012, Prague, Czech
Republic
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G., Stephen A., Kuh D. &
Richards M. Use it or lose it! The role of lifestyle behaviours on
cognitive decline. Oral presentation at the Enrghi Conference 2012,
UCL, 10-11 September 2012, London, UK
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G., Stephen A., Kuh D. &
Richards M. The role of lifestyle behaviours on 20 years cognitive.
Findings from a British birth cohort study. Oral presentation at
the International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM 2012), 29
August-1 September 2012, Budapest, Hungary
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G., Stephen A., Kuh D. &
Richards M. Physical activity and cognitive decline in midlife,
Findings from a British birth cohort study, Oral presentation at
the World Congress on Active Ageing 13-17 Aug 2012. Glasgow, UK
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G. & Richards M. Lifetime
smoking behaviour and cognitive decline in midlife, Oral
presentation at Motivating, enabling and prompting behaviour change
for health, UK Society for Behavioural Medicine (UKSBM) in
association with the National Prevention Research Initiative
(NPRI), 13-14th December 2011, University of Stirling, UK
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G. & Richards M. Physical
activity and cognitive decline in midlife, findings from a British
birth cohort study, Oral presentation at Research on Physical
Activity and Health in London: from Laboratory to Environmental and
Population Studies Symposium at Institute of Child Health (ICH),
28th November 2011, London, UK
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G. & Richards M. The cumulative
effects of alcohol consumption over midlife on cognitive decline,
Oral presentation at Society for Longitudinal and Life course
Studies (SLLS), 26-28th September 2011, Bielefeld, Germany.
Longitudinal Life Course Studies: International Journal, 3 (1), Jan
2012, ISSN 1757-9597
Cadar D., Pikhart H., Mishra G. & Richards M. The long and
short term effects of alcohol consumption on cognitive decline,
Oral presentation at Social Society for Medicine (SSM), 14-16th
September 2011, University of Warwick, UK. Journal of Epidemiology
& Community Health 65 doi:10.1136/jech.2011.143586.75
Cadar D., Mishra G. & Richards M. An investigation between
alcohol consumption and cognitive functioning, “Is the freedom from
cognitive impairment really at hand?” Poster presentation at Shape
of Science Research Symposium, 5th July 2010, University Of
Manchester, UK.–Awarded runner up prize
Other publications:
Dorina Cadar. Geriatric Psychiatry Basics, Journal of Mental
Health 18 (4):358-359 (2009) DOI: 10.1080/09638230902946841