COMPASS-ND Study

The Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia (COMPASS-ND) Study

COMPASS-ND is the signature observational cohort study of CCNA. Close to 1,200 Canadians between the ages of 50 and 90 who are living with, or are at risk of developing, dementia were enrolled in over 30 sites across Canada. This study is funded by the Government of Canada through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and 12 partner organizations from the public and private sectors.

COMPASS-ND is a visionary interdisciplinary collaboration established by CCNA to fill critical knowledge gaps. We still know very little about older individuals with complex cognitive decline and dementia who represent the majority seen in Memory Clinics and clinical practice. Individuals with mixed dementia, multi-morbidities, diagnostic complexity, and frailty have been excluded from narrowly focused observational studies like the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), other studies worldwide, and clinical trials with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. Consequently, we know far more about the “perfect” cases of Alzheimer’s disease than about “ecologically-valid” individuals. COMPASS-ND includes real-world participants across the dementia spectrum, and the study is transformative for its participant heterogeneity, data breadth and depth, and unique longitudinal studies planned for the next few years.

The major goals of the study are:

  • To learn about who is at risk of developing dementia
  • To determine how early dementia can be detected
  • To find out what tests are most effective at detecting dementia

Accordingly, COMPASS-ND is designed to provide the data that will enable 14 out of 20 of CCNA’s research teams to address their hypotheses. Read the launch Q&A here.

Study Summary

The COMPASS-ND Study is an observational study of people with various types of dementia or cognitive complaints. The study collects clinical, neuropsychological, and MRI imaging data as well as blood, saliva, and urine samples from participants. Participants who are willing may undergo additional tests including: lumbar puncture, buccal swabs, fecal sample collection, and brain donation (after time of your death). Annual telephone checks will be conducted and the baseline procedures will be repeated after 2 years.

Articles published using COMPASS-ND data

  • Standing middle cerebral artery velocity predicts cognitive function and gait speed in older adults with cognitive impairment, and is impacted by sex differences, published in January 2024 in Cerebral Circulation – Cognition and Behavior
  • Machine learning analyses identify multi-modal frailty factors that selectively discriminate four cohorts in the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum: a COMPASS-ND study, published in December 2023 in BMC Geriatrics
  • Hearing loss is associated with decreased default-mode network connectivity in individuals with mild cognitive impairment, published in December 2023 in Neuroimage: Report
  • Gray matter loss relates to dual task gait in Lewy body disorders and aging, published in October 2023 in the Journal of Neurology
  • Sex-specific interactions between hearing and memory in older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment: Findings from the COMPASS-ND study, published in August 2023 in Ear and Hearing
  • Dual-task gait and white matter hyperintensities in Lewy body diseases: An exploratory analysis, published in April 2023 in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
  • Sex Moderates the Association between Frailty and Mild Behavioral Impairment, published in June 2022 in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease

 

Participant Groups

Neurodegeneration is an umbrella term comprising a variety of conditions. Participants with the following memory conditions are recruited into COMPASS-ND: cognitively unimpaired; subjective cognitive impairment; mild cognitive impairment (MCI); MCI with silent vascular lesions; Alzheimer’s disease; dementia of mixed etiology; frontotemporal dementia; and Lewy body spectrum disorders, which include Lewy body disease as well as Parkinson’s disease without and with cognitive impairment/dementia.

Up to now, most studies of age-related cognitive decline have focused on specific types of dementia in isolation. The goal of COMPASS-ND is to study dementia in all its forms, including cases where there are multiple pathologies involved, such as Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular disease, referred to as “mixed” dementia. This broad approach is being taken in order to investigate what these dementias have in common, as well as what differentiates them. Doing so will help in diagnosing, understanding, and working to prevent the onset of dementia in all its forms. In the case of mixed dementia, study results will help CCNA researchers examine the impacts of different pathologies alone and in combination, and their implications for disease course and treatment.

Site Details

Participants in COMPASS-ND are recruited from sites across Canada. There are currently COMPASS-ND data collection sites in Québec City, Sherbrooke, Montréal, Ottawa, Peterborough, Toronto, Kitchener/Waterloo, London, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Victoria.

Data collection sites include memory clinics, stroke clinics, movement disorder clinics, and behavioural neurology clinics as well as both academic and private research groups.

Recruitment

Recruitment in the COMPASS-ND study is temporarily paused.

Please get in touch with us () to learn more about how to participate in Canada’s largest study on aging and dementia!

Data Access

LORIS Database

LORIS (Longitudinal Online Research and Imaging System) is a web-based data and project management software for neuroimaging research studies. Behavioural, clinical, neuroimaging, and genetic data from the COMPASS-ND study are stored and processed in LORIS. As it becomes available, data collected from participants are made accessible via the Data Query Tool, with supporting documentation in both the Data Release and Data Dictionary modules. In addition, CCNA scientists can use LORIS communicate their intentions about how the data will be used, both within and across research teams.

To request a LORIS account, please click here.

Data Access Request

To access data from the COMPASS-ND study, please submit a Data Access Request in LORIS. We kindly request researchers to provide detailed and precise information pertaining to their projects. If you have any inquiries about this process, please get in touch with our Data Coordinator, Turaç Aydoğan (turac.aydogan.ca@gmail.com).

Data Release and Validation

COMPASS-ND Initial Assessment

The baseline data for our cohort of 1,173 participants are now available in the LORIS Data Query Tool. Please click here for a detailed list of instruments in the COMPASS-ND study.

COMPASS-ND Follow-Up Assessments

The Data Validation team is currently working diligently on verifying data for the follow-up assessments for the cognitively unimpaired and subjective cognitive impairment cohorts. Once these data will be validated, they will be accessible via the LORIS Data Query Tool. For more information about the COMPASS-ND study or data validation, please contact Logane Gnassi (logane.gnassi@ladydavis.ca), our Clinical Research Coordinator.

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