Around 55 million people are living with dementia worldwide and in times of population aging this number is expected to triple in 30 years. Effective treatments of late-life cognitive impairment and dementia are currently unavailable, stressing the need for preventive strategies. Evidence suggests that old-age cognitive function is affected by several modifiable risk factors, such as e.g., smoking, physical inactivity, and diabetes, possibly forming a pathway to interventions to prevent or postpone onset. Most previous studies have, however, considered these risk factors as isolated static events. The main limitation with this approach is that it does not properly reflect real-world aging patterns, where risk factors interact and change over the life course, and therefore has limited use in practice. The primary purpose of this project is to elucidate the, so far largely unknown, dynamic pathways by which cardiovascular, behavioral and social factors affect cognitive aging. By using longitudinal data on more than 110,000 respondents from a cross-national longitudinal survey on health, retirement and aging (SHARE), we are in a unique position to improve understanding of the etiological role of these risk factors in cognitive aging. Nevertheless, the proposed research and the available data suggests that standard analysis methods will not be sufficient, and several statistical challenges must be addressed in parallel.