EVALUATION OF 100 PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA IN SAO-PAULO, BRAZIL - CORRELATION WITH SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS AND EDUCATION

One hundred consecutive outpatients with dementia were prospectively s tudied to investigate the diagnoses of dementing diseases and to corre late these diagnoses with socioeconomic status and with education. Alz heimer disease was the most common cause of dementia (54%), followed b y vascular dementia (20%). Eight patients presented with potentially r eversible causes of dementia. These frequencies are similar to those r eported by case register studies from Western Europe and the United St ates. We did not find differences in the frequencies of the dementing diseases according to socioeconomic status or education. Alzheimer dis ease was the most common cause of dementia in all socioeconomic classe s. Potentially reversible dementias, vascular dementias, and other sec ondary dementias were not more frequent in the lower socioeconomic str ata. There was a trend to a higher frequency of vascular dementia amon g patients with less education, but this was not statistically signifi cant.