Dementia Risk (dementia + risk)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Overweight and Obesity in Old Age Are Not Associated with Greater Dementia Risk

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 12 2008
(See editorial comments by Dr. David S. Knodman, 2350), pp 234
OBJECTIVES: To describe the association between body mass index (BMI) and dementia risk in older persons. DESIGN: Prospective population-based study, with 8 years of follow-up. SETTING: The municipality of Lieto, Finland, 1990/91 and 1998/99. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred five men and women without dementia aged 65 to 92 at baseline (mean age 70.8). MEASUREMENTS: Weight and height were measured at baseline and at the 8-year follow-up. Dementia was clinically assessed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria. RESULTS: Eighty-six persons were diagnosed with dementia. Cox regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, education, cardiovascular diseases, smoking, and alcohol use, indicated that, for each unit increase in BMI score, the risk of dementia decreased 8% (hazard ratio (HR)=0.92, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.87,0.97). This association remained significant when individuals who developed dementia early during the first 4 years of follow-up were excluded from the analyses (HR=0.93, 95% CI=0.86,0.99). Women with high BMI scores had a lower dementia risk (HR=0.90, 95% CI=0.84,0.96). Men with high BMI scores also tended to have a lower dementia risk, although the association did not reach significance (HR=0.95, 95% CI=0.84,1.07). CONCLUSION: Older persons with higher BMI scores have less dementia risk than their counterparts with lower BMI scores. High BMI scores in late life should not necessarily be considered to be a risk factor for dementia. [source]


Estrogen and Mental Health: Does Ovary Removal Increase Dementia Risk?

NURSING FOR WOMENS HEALTH, Issue 6 2007
Jennifer P. Hellwig MS
First page of article [source]


Blood Pressure and Brain Injury in Older Adults: Findings from a Community-Based Autopsy Study

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 11 2009
Lucy Y. Wang MD
OBJECTIVES: To examine correlations between blood pressure (BP) and dementia-related pathological brain changes in a community-based autopsy sample. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: A large health maintenance organization in Seattle, Washington. PARTICIPANTS: A cohort of 250 participants aged 65 and older and cognitively normal at time of enrollment in the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study and who underwent autopsy. MEASUREMENTS: BP and history of antihypertensive treatment were taken at enrollment. A linear regression model was used to examine the relationship between BP (systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP)) at enrollment and pathological changes in the cerebrum (cystic macroscopic infarcts, microinfarcts, neuritic plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and cortical Lewy bodies). RESULTS: The presence of more than 2 microinfarcts, but not any other pathological change, was independently associated with SBP in younger participants (65,80, n=137) but not in older participants (>80, n=91). The relative risk (RR) for more than two microinfarcts with each 10-mmHg increase in SBP was 1.15 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.00,1.33) in the younger participants, adjusted for age at entry, sex, and time to death. This RR was particularly strong in younger participants not taking antihypertensive medications (RR=1.48, 95% CI=1.21, 1.81); significant associations were not observed in participants treated for hypertension. Findings for DBP were negative. CONCLUSION: The association between high SBP and cerebrovascular damage in untreated older adults (65,80) suggests that adequate hypertension treatment may reduce dementia risk by minimizing microvascular injury to cerebrum. [source]


Overweight and Obesity in Old Age Are Not Associated with Greater Dementia Risk

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 12 2008
(See editorial comments by Dr. David S. Knodman, 2350), pp 234
OBJECTIVES: To describe the association between body mass index (BMI) and dementia risk in older persons. DESIGN: Prospective population-based study, with 8 years of follow-up. SETTING: The municipality of Lieto, Finland, 1990/91 and 1998/99. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred five men and women without dementia aged 65 to 92 at baseline (mean age 70.8). MEASUREMENTS: Weight and height were measured at baseline and at the 8-year follow-up. Dementia was clinically assessed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria. RESULTS: Eighty-six persons were diagnosed with dementia. Cox regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, education, cardiovascular diseases, smoking, and alcohol use, indicated that, for each unit increase in BMI score, the risk of dementia decreased 8% (hazard ratio (HR)=0.92, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.87,0.97). This association remained significant when individuals who developed dementia early during the first 4 years of follow-up were excluded from the analyses (HR=0.93, 95% CI=0.86,0.99). Women with high BMI scores had a lower dementia risk (HR=0.90, 95% CI=0.84,0.96). Men with high BMI scores also tended to have a lower dementia risk, although the association did not reach significance (HR=0.95, 95% CI=0.84,1.07). CONCLUSION: Older persons with higher BMI scores have less dementia risk than their counterparts with lower BMI scores. High BMI scores in late life should not necessarily be considered to be a risk factor for dementia. [source]


Ethnic Differences in Singapore's Dementia Prevalence: The Stroke, Parkinson's Disease, Epilepsy, and Dementia in Singapore Study

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 11 2008
Suresh Sahadevan MBBS
OBJECTIVES: To study the prevalence of dementia in Singapore among Chinese, Malays, and Indians. DESIGN: A two-phase, cross-sectional study of randomly selected population from central Singapore with disproportionate race stratification. SETTING: Community-based study. Subjects screened to have cognitive impairment at phase 1 in their homes were evaluated clinically for dementia at phase 2 in nearby community centers. PARTICIPANTS: Fourteen thousand eight hundred seventeen subjects aged 50 and older (67% participation rate). MEASUREMENTS: The locally validated Abbreviated Mental Test was used to screen for cognitive impairment at phase 1. Dementia was diagnosed at phase 2 as per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria. Possible Alzheimer's disease (AD) and possible vascular dementia (VD) were diagnosed along the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders,Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,Association Internationale pour la Recherche et l'Enseignement en Neuroscienes criteria, respectively. RESULTS: The overall age- and race-standardized dementia prevalence was 1.26% (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.10,1.45). Prevalence (in 5-year age bands) was 0.08% (50,54), 0.08% (55,59), 0.44% (60,64), 1.16% (65,69), 1.84% (70,74), 3.26% (75,79), 8.35% (80,84), and 16.42% (,85). From age 50 to 69, 65% of dementia cases were VD; at older ages, 60% were AD. Logistic regression (adjusted for age, sex, education) showed that Malays had twice the risk for AD as Chinese, and Indians had more than twice the risk for AD and VD than Chinese. CONCLUSION: Singapore's dementia prevalence, primarily influenced by its Chinese majority, is lower than seen in the West. The striking interethnic differences suggest a need for a dementia incidence study and further investigation of underlying genetic and cultural differences between the three ethnic groups in relation to dementia risk. [source]


Age-Varying Association Between Blood Pressure and Risk of Dementia in Those Aged 65 and Older: A Community-Based Prospective Cohort Study

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 8 2007
Ge Li MD
OBJECTIVES: To assess variation in the association between blood pressure (BP) and risk for dementia across a spectrum of older ages and to examine BP changes before dementia onset. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: A large health maintenance organization in Seattle, Washington. PARTICIPANTS: A cohort of 2,356 members of a large health maintenance organization aged 65 and older who were initially without dementia. MEASUREMENTS: Dementia diagnosis was assessed biennially, and systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were measured at baseline and at four follow-up assessments. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) associated with baseline BP in different age groups. RESULTS: Within the youngest age group (65,74 at enrollment) a greater risk for dementia was found in participants with high SBP (,160 mmHg) (hazard ratio (HR)=1.60, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.01,2.55) or borderline-high DBP (80,89 mmHg) (HR=1.59, 95% CI=1.07,2.35) than for those with normal BP (SBP <140 mmHg and DBP <80 mmHg). The dementia risk associated with SBP declined with increasing age (SBP-by-age interaction, P=.01). SBP declined similarly with aging in subjects who developed dementia and those who did not. Thus, in this sample, the association between SBP and dementia risk was not dependent on when BP was measured in relation to onset of dementia. CONCLUSION: High SBP was associated with greater risk of dementia in the young elderly (<75) but not in older subjects. Adequate control of hypertension in early old age may reduce the risk for dementia. [source]


Apolipoprotein E ,4 and catechol- O -methyltransferase alleles in autopsy-proven Parkinson's disease: Relationship to dementia and hallucinations

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 8 2005
Richard Camicioli MD
Abstract We determined whether apolipoprotein E ,4 (ApoE4) or catechol- O -methyltransferase (COMT) genotypes were associated with dementia, hallucinations, Alzheimer's disease pathological findings (AP), or cortical Lewy bodies (CLBs) in autopsy-confirmed cases of Parkinson's disease (PD). Outcomes were obtained from medical records. Pathology reports identified AP and CLBs. Brain tissue was genotyped. A total of 47 subjects (33 men, 14 women) had PD onset at 62.4 ± 8.7 years of age and died at 77.8 ± 5.6 years of age. Demented and hallucinating patients did not differ in age at onset (AO) of PD or age at death, or the proportion ApoE4+, AP+, or CLB+ compared to nondemented patients or nonhallucinating patients. ApoE4 and COMT (low metabolizer [LH], intermediate metabolizer [HL], or high metabolizer [HH]) did not influence AO, death, or dementia- or hallucination-free survival, based on age or duration of treatment. All seven subjects with AP were demented and had hallucinations. CLBs were associated with dementia but not hallucinations. In Cox regression models adjusting for AO and duration of treatment, increased risk of dementia was associated with male sex but not significantly with ApoE4; inclusion of AP in the model did not affect the results; COMT was not a risk factor for dementia. Psychosis risk was not associated with ApoE4, COMT, or sex. The observation that males have increased dementia risk and the trend for ApoE4 requires confirmation in larger prospective autopsy studies. © 2005 Movement Disorder Society [source]


Atherosclerosis, dementia, and Alzheimer disease in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of aging cohort

ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Hillary Dolan MA
Objective Although it is now accepted that asymptomatic cerebral infarcts are an important cause of dementia in the elderly, the relationship between atherosclerosis per se and dementia is controversial. Specifically, it is unclear whether atherosclerosis can cause the neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that define Alzheimer neuropathology and whether atherosclerosis, a potentially reversible risk factor, can influence cognition independent of brain infarcts. Methods We examined the relationship between systemic atherosclerosis, Alzheimer type pathology, and dementia in autopsies from 200 participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, a prospective study of the effect of aging on cognition, 175 of whom had complete body autopsies. Results Using a quantitative analysis of atherosclerosis in the aorta, heart, and intracranial vessels, we found no relationship between the degree of atherosclerosis in any of these systems and the degree of Alzheimer type brain pathology. However, we found that the presence of intracranial but not coronary or aortic atherosclerosis significantly increased the odds of dementia, independent of cerebral infarction. Given the large number of individuals with intracranial atherosclerosis in this cohort (136/200), the population attributable risk of dementia related to intracranial atherosclerosis (independent of infarction) is substantial and potentially reversible. Interpretation Atherosclerosis of the intracranial arteries is an independent and important risk factor for dementia, suggesting potentially reversible pathways unrelated to Alzheimer pathology and stroke through which vascular changes may influence dementia risk. [source]