A. Lobo et al., Prevalence of dementia and major subtypes in Europe: A collaborative studyof population-based cohorts, NEUROLOGY, 54(11), 2000, pp. S4-S9
The last comparison of prevalence figures of dementia across European studi
es was 10 years ago. Using studies conducted in the 1990s, the authors comp
are the age- and sex-specific prevalence of dementia, AD, and vascular deme
ntia (VaD) across European population-based studies of persons 65 years and
older. Data from these studies were also pooled to obtain stable estimates
of age- and sex-specific prevalence. A total of 2346 cases of mild to seve
re dementia were identified in 11 cohorts. Age-standardized prevalence was
6.4% for dementia tall causes), 4.4% for AD, and 1.6% for VaD. The prevalen
ce of dementia increased continuously with age and was 0.8% in the group ag
e 65 to 69 years and 28.5% at age 90 years and older. The corresponding fig
ures for AD (53.7% of cases) were 0.6% and 22.2%, and for VaD (15.8% of cas
es), 0.3% and 5.2%. Variation of AD prevalence across studies was greatest
for men. In the VaD subtype, a large variation across studies was observed,
as well as a difference in prevalence between men and women that was age d
ependent. Dementia is more prevalent in women, and AD is the main contribut
or to the steep increase of prevalence with age.