Prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and other dementing disorders in an urban community of Beijing, China

A door-to-door two-phase study was used to investigate the prevalence of se nile dementia in an urban community of Beijing. In the study population, 5, 003 individuals aged 60 years and older (greater than or equal to 65 years, n = 3,728) were screened at home with the Chinese version of the MMSE. Per sons who screened positive for dementia, using different cutoff scores base d on degree of literacy, were further evaluated using the criteria of DSM-I II-R and ICD-10. Among subjects who screened positive in phase I, 134 were diagnosed as having dementia in phase II. The prevalence ratios of dementia were 2.68% in the population aged 60 years and older, and 3.49% in the pop ulation aged 65 years and older. The prevalence rates among those aged 65 y ears and older were 1.85% for Alzheimer's disease, 1.37% for vascular demen tia and 0.27% for other dementia (including mixed dementia). The prevalence of all dementia and AD increased steeply with advancing age and was consis tently higher in women, but it was not obviously higher for VaD in women. A lzheimer's disease was the commonest type of dementia. Our prevalence figur es for dementia and AD are similar to those previously reported for China. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.