Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP)

Overview

The main goal of WRAP is to understand the factors (biological, medical, environmental, and lifestyle choices) that increase a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This is a first step in developing interventions that may protect against developing Alzheimer's disease.

WRAP is an observational study that is tracking the characteristics and habits of two important groups of volunteers:

• people who have one or both parents with Alzheimer's disease (the family history group), and;
• people whose parents lived to old age with no signs of Alzheimer's disease or other serious memory problems (the control group).

People who have a family member with Alzheimer's disease have a higher risk of developing the disease and are important research volunteers in this study. WRAP is the largest long-term study of healthy relatives of persons with Alzheimer's disease and has received scientific recognition and funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Enrollment in WRAP began in 2001. The plan is to follow participants for a minimum of 15 to 20 years. Over 1,500 people are now enrolled in WRAP, including over 1,100 family history volunteers and over 400 control volunteers. Unfortunately this number does not include a significant number of minorities. In order to have a study that is representative of the entire population, we are making a concentrated effort to increase minority participation, especially in the African-American and Hispanic/Latino communities.

Participation in WRAP includes an initial study visit and follow-up visits every 2 to 4 years. At each visit, study volunteers are asked to:

• Complete questionnaires about their background, medical history, and lifestyle habits such as exercise or diet.
• Have height, weight and vital signs such as blood pressure measured.
• Complete cognitive tests to check memory, attention and other cognitive skills.
• Give a blood sample for laboratory testing.
• Provide stored blood samples for use in future analyses, including genetic analyses.

Participants in WRAP are eligible to participate in research studies at the Wisconsin Comprehensive Memory Program/Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Read more

Participants Are Needed

The WAI is currently recruiting African-Americans and English-speaking Hispanics/Latinos whose parent(s) developed Alzheimer's disease to participate in WRAP. Persons whose parents did NOT develop Alzheimer's disease or dementia (controls) are also eligible to participate.

For More Information

For further information, please contact us at the site nearest you (list to the right) and/or read more on WRAP: Frequently Asked Questions.

WRAP Publications

WRAP In the News

12/2013: Personal Experiences Inspire Alzheimer's Research. UW Foundation highlights the work of Dr. Mark Sager and WRAP.

11/11/2011: NBC15 News Segment featuring the WRAP program

11/08/2010: Alzheimer's Prevention Registry Shines Light on Earliest Signs of Disease

UW School of Medicine & Public Health's Quarterly newsletter featuring WAI's WRAP program and one participant's story. This article appears in the fall 2010 issue of Quarterly.

10/18/2010: Getting a Jump on Alzheimer's: Patients' Children Join Studies

ABC News segment featuring Dr. Mark Sager and one family's story.

10/18/2010: Seven Siblings: Who Will Get Alzheimer's?

ABC News story featuring Dr. Mark Sager and one of the families enrolled in WRAP.

07/14/2010: Researchers Discover Possible Way to Predict Alzheimer's

Dr. Mark Sager explains the significance of recent findings.

Alzheimer's Update Newsletter

The Alzheimer's Update is a newsletter written by WRAP researchers for WRAP participants and others interested in Alzheimer's research. The yearly newsletter informs participants of the present status and future plans for WRAP research opportunities and recent discoveries in Alzheimer's research. Current Issue

Please email Janet Rowley at jsrowley@wisc.edu if you would like to be added to the newsletter mailing list.

Scientific Publications

WRAP research staff continuously publish articles and scientific papers on their research efforts related to Alzheimer's disease. In addition, research staff present at numerous national and international conferences related to Alzheimer's disease. Sampling of articles, posters and other presentations.