The use of convent archival records in medical research: The school sisters of Notre Dame archives and the nun study

American Archivist

Volumn 67, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 86-106

  Patzwald, Gari Anne ^a   Wildt, Sister Carol Marie ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGING; ALZHEIMER DISEASE; ARTICLE; FEMALE; HISTORY; HUMAN; INFORMATION CENTER; MEDICAL RECORD; MEDICAL SCHOOL; RELIGION; UNITED STATES; WOMEN'S HEALTH;

AGING; ALZHEIMER DISEASE; ARCHIVES; CATHOLICISM; FEMALE; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 21ST CENTURY; HUMANS; MEDICAL RECORDS; RELIGION AND MEDICINE; SCHOOLS, MEDICAL; UNITED STATES; WOMEN'S HEALTH;

EID: 3042744821     PISSN: 03609081     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17723/aarc.67.1.d558520196w85573     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. Bruce W. Dearstyne, "What Is the Use of Archives? A Challenge for the Profession," American Archivist 50 (Winter 1987): 76-87.
2. David A. Haury, "The Research Potential of Religious Archives: The Mennonite Experience," Midwestern Archivist 11, no. 2 (1986): 135-40.
3. The following year an article by Paul A. Ericksen described specific ways in which the Billy Graham Center processed its collections and encouraged their use by students and scholars studying nonreligious topics. "Letting the World In: Anticipating the Use of Religious Archives for the Study of Nonreligious Subjects," Midwestern Archivist 12, no. 2 (1987): 83-90.
4. Examples of research articles that use statistical data to achieve similar goals to those of the Nun Study are Victoria Moceri, et al., "Using Census Data and Birth Certificates to Reconstruct the Early-life Socioeconomic Environment and the Relation to the Development of Alzheimer's Disease," Epidemiology 21 (July 2001): 383-89;
5. and Lawrence J. Whalley and Ian J. Deary, "Longitudinal Cohort Study of Childhood IQ and Survival up to Age 76," BMJ 322 (7 April 2001): 1-5. Moceri and her associates used census data to determine if there was any risk of Alzheimer's disease associated with father's occupation, parental age, household size, number of siblings, or birth order. Whalley and Deary used IQ test results of 2,792 Scottish children born in 1921 and mortality data on the same people gathered from a variety of sources to determine the effect of mental ability on survival. Given legal restrictions on access to school records, it is unlikely that the latter study could have been done in the United States.
6. It should be noted that religious orders have long been the subjects of prospective medical studies in which new data are gathered from religious communities. A large body of literature has been generated by these studies. Of particular note are several studies of diet in monastic communities, including Barbara F. Harland and Michael Peterson, "Nutritional Status of Lacto-ovo Vegetarian Trappist Monks," Journal of the American Dietetic Association 72 (March 1978): 259-64. Currently, the Religious Orders Study at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago is studying various health factors in members of over forty congregations of both women and men.
7. For more information on the history and current activities of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, visit their Web site at http://www.ssnd.org (accessed 26 February 2004).
8. For background information on the Nun Study, see David Snowdon, Aging with Grace (New York: Bantam Books, 2001).
9. Abstracts of published Nun Study findings are available on the Nun Study Web site at www.nunstudy.org.
10. You Are Sent: Constitution of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (Rome: Generalate, 1970), 121.
11. Acts of the Fourteenth General Chapter of the School Sisters of Notre Dame; October 20-November 22, 1972 (Rome: Generalate), 15-17.
12. Marjorie Myers, "SSND Heritage Research Goes On," Soundings, November 1983, 13.
13. For a description of Dr. Snowdon's discovery of the archives, see Aging with Grace, 24-25.
14. The Policy and Procedure Manual of the SSND Interprovincial Archivists Group (1997), 33-35.
15. Myers, "Heritage Research Goes On," 13.
16. Ann E. Smith Sehdev and Grover M. Hutchins, "Problems with Proper Completion and Accuracy of the Cause-of-Death Statement," Archives of Internal Medicine 161 (22 January 2001): 277-84.
17. Kalman Kafetz, " 'Old Age' Should Not Be Acceptable on Death Certificates," BMJ 322 (21 April 2001): 993. It should be noted that there were several replies to Dr. Kafetz's letter that contended that "old age" is an appropriate cause of death, at least in rare cases.
18. Stanley R. Sax, et al., "Dental Amalgam and Cognitive Function in Older Women: Findings from the Nun Study," Journal of the American Dental Association 126 (November 1995): 1495-1501.
19. Marshal F. Folstein, Susan E. Folstein, and Paul R. McHugh, "Mini-Mental State. A Practical Method for Grading the Cognitive State of Patients for the Clinician," Journal of Psychiatric Research 12 (November 1975): 189-98.
20. For a description of the assessment tests, see, Kathryn P. Riley, et al., "Cognitive Function and Apolipoprotein E in Very Old Adults: Findings from the Nun Study," Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 55 (March 2000): S69-S75.
21. David A. Snowdon, et al., "Linguistic Ability in Early Life and Cognitive Function and Alzheimer's Disease in Late Life: Findings from the Nun Study," JAMA 275, no. 7 (February 1996): 528-32.
22. This article includes excerpts from the autobiographies of two participants. Factual data were altered in the excerpts to maintain confidentiality. Low idea density has also been shown to have a negative impact on longevity. D. A. Snowdon, et al., "Linguistic Ability in Early Life and Longevity: Findings from the Nun Study," in The Paradoxes of Longevity, ed. J.-M. Robine, et al., (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1999), 103-13.
23. Deborah D. Danner, Wallace V. Friesen, and David A. Snowdon, "Written Emotion Expression Code" (unpublished, 2000).
24. Deborah D. Danner, David A. Snowdon, and Wallace V. Friesen. "Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity: Findings from the Nun Study," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80 (May 2001): 804-13.
25. Ashok Jansari and Alan J. Parkin, "Things That Go Bump in Your Life: Explaining the Reminiscence Bump in Autobiographical Memory," Psychology and Aging 11 (March 1996): 85-91.
26. Martin A. Conway and Shamsul Haque, "Overshadowing the Reminiscence Bump: Memories of a Struggle for Independence," Journal of Adult Development 6 (January 1999): 35-44.
27. Ruiben Feng and others, "Deficient Neurogenesis in Forebrain-Specific Presenilin-1 Knockout Mice Is Associated with Reduced Clearance of Hippocampal Memory Traces," Neuron 32 (December 2001): 911-26. There is also evidence from neuroimaging studies that autobiographical memories in older adults activate different parts of the hippocampus in the brain than do the same types of memories in younger people. The significance of this with regard to the content of the memories is yet to be determined.
28. Eleanor A. Maguire and Christopher D. Frith, "Aging Affects the Engagement of the Hippocampus during Autobiographical Memory Retrieval," Brain 126 (July 2003): 1511-23.
29. Harry P. Bahrick, Lynda K. Hall, and Stephanie A. Berger, "Accuracy and Distortion in Memory for High School Grades," Psychological Science 7 (September 1996): 265-71;
30. Gillian Cohen and Rosalind Java, "Memory for Medical History: Accuracy of Recall," Applied Cognitive Psychology 9 (August 1995): 273-88.
31. Jansari and Parkin, "Things That Go Bump in Your Life," 85-91.
32. Paul Ekman and Wallace V. Friesen, Facial Action Coding System: A Manual (Palo Alto, Calif.: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1978).