ARE PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE SURVIVING LONGER IN RECENT YEARS

We report the survival experience of the incidence cohort of Alzheimer 's disease (AD) patients in Rochester, Minnesota, whose onset occurred during the years 1960 to 1984. Survival was evaluated relative to yea r of onset, age at onset, and gender. Survival was better among women than men and improved for those with AD with more recent onset. The re lative hazard decreased by a factor of 0.82 for each decade. The effec t of age at onset was nonlinear, indicating that the hazard of death d oes not change at a constant rate with age.