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Current findings[edit] Researchers have also accessed the convent archive to review documents amassed throughout the lives of the nuns in the study. Among the documents reviewed were autobiographical essays that have been written by the nuns upon joining the sisterhood; upon review, it was found that an essay's lack of linguistic density (e.g., complexity, vivacity, fluency) functioned as a significant predictor of its author's risk for developing Alzheimer's disease in old age. However, the study also found that the nuns who wrote positively in their personal journals were more likely to live longer than their counterparts. The approximate mean age of the nuns at the time of writing was merely 22 years. Roughly 80% of nuns whose writing was measured as lacking in linguistic density went on to develop Alzheimer's disease in old age; meanwhile, of those whose writing was not lacking, only 10% later developed the disease.[6] One of thee of the major findings of the Nun Study suggests "that traits in early, mid, and late life have strong relationships with the risk of Alzheimer's disease, as well as the mental and cognitive disabilities of old age."[7] Another major finding of the study concluded that if a person has a stroke, less Alzheimer’s brain lesions are necessary to diagnose a person with dementia.

Origin[edit source] The Nun Study, begun in 1986 with funding by the National Institute on Aging, focuses on a group of 678 American Roman Catholic sisters who are members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The sisters had to be at least 75 years of age and all of them were studied until their deaths. As of 2017, there are three participants who are still living. Studying a relatively homogeneous group (no drug use, little or no alcohol, similar housing and reproductive histories, etc.) minimizes the extraneous variables that may confound other similar research.[5]