L. Fratiglioni et al., Incidence of dementia and major subtypes in Europe: A collaborative study of population-based cohorts, NEUROLOGY, 54(11), 2000, pp. S10-S15
The authors examined the association of incident dementia and subtypes with
age, sex, and geographic area in Europe. Incidence data from eight populat
ion-based studies carried out in seven European countries were compared and
pooled. The pooled data included 835 mild to severe dementia cases and 42,
996 person-years of follow-up. In all studies a higher proportion of cases
were diagnosed with AD (60 to 70% of all demented cases) than vascular deme
ntia (VaD). The incidence of dementia and AD continued to increase with age
up to age 85 years, after which rates increased in women but not men. Ther
e was a large variation in VaD incidence across studies. In the pooled anal
ysis, the incidence rates increased with age without any substantial differ
ence between men and women. Surprisingly, higher incidence rates of dementi
a and AD were found in the very old in northwest countries than in southern
countries. This study confirms that AD is the most frequent dementing diso
rder in all ages, and that there is a higher incidence of dementia, specifi
cally AD, in women than men among the very old. Finally, there may be regio
nal differences in dementia incidence.