The Panama Aging Research Initiative: Dementia‐related biomarker research in a low‐resourced setting

The Panama Aging Research Initiative (PARI) is a two‐cohort study of more than 800 adults aged 60 years and older. PARI has provided the first reports of modifiable and non‐modifiable risk factors of cognitive impairment and dementia, as well as various health conditions common among older adults in Panama, including chronic illnesses, polypharmacy and frailty. Our general objective consists of identifying biomarkers of memory impairment for improving early diagnosis of dementia, and specifically, Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Panama follows the global trend of smartphone use and rapid access to information. Therefore, the implementation of digital phenotyping as clinical tool could be a promising strategy to developing culturally appropriate cost‐ and time‐efficient protocols for early detection of cognitive impairment.