COGNITIVE DEFICITS OF MEN AND WOMEN WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

We performed two studies of cognitive abilities among men and women wh o met clinical criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among 46 AD pati ents, performance of women on a composite neuropsychological battery w as more impaired than that of men when the potentially confounding eff ects of demographic variables were controlled; the largest group diffe rences were due to significantly worse performance by women with AD on a naming task. Based on these initial findings, we next analyzed an i ndependent data set of 647 demented subjects enrolled in the multicent er Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease, hypothe sizing that the naming performance of women with AD would be significa ntly worse than that of men with this illness. Analyses controlling fo r demographic variables, or separately controlling for dementia severi ty, confirmed that women with AD performed significantly less well on the naming task and on verbal fluency. Women also performed less well on delayed recall, but there were no significant differences on other tasks. Factor analysis confirmed significant differences on a language factor, implying that men retain verbal skills better than women do d uring the initial stages of AD. Elderly nondemented women performed as well as or better than nondemented men on all. comparisons. We conclu de that there are modest differences in how men and women with AD perf orm an cognitive tasks and that differences may be discrete rather tha n global in nature.