Prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in a community population of older persons. Higher than previously reported.

Clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease and other dementing illnesses were assessed in a geographically defined US community. Of 3623 persons (80.8% of all community residents over 65 years of age) who had brief memory testing in their homes, a stratified sample of 467 persons underwent neurological, neuropsychological, and laboratory examination. Prevalence rates of Alzheimer's disease were calculated for the community population from the sample undergoing clinical evaluation. Of those over the age of 65 years, an estimated 10.3% (95% confidence limits, 8.1% and 12.5%) had probable Alzheimer's disease. This prevalence rate was strongly associated with age. Of those 65 to 74 years old, 3.0% (95% confidence limits, 0.8 and 5.2) had probable Alzheimer's disease, compared with 18.7% (95% confidence limits, 13.2 and 24.2) of those 75 to 84 years old and 47.2% (95% confidence limits, 37.0 and 63.2) of those over 85 years. Other dementing conditions were uncommon. Of community residents with moderate or severe cognitive impairment, 84.1% had clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease as the only probable diagnosis. These data suggest that clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease is a common condition and that its public health impact will continue to increase with increasing longevity of the population.

[1]  H. Larsson,et al.  Individual traits and morbidity in a Swedish rural population. , 1956, Acta psychiatrica et neurologica Scandinavica. Supplementum.

[2]  J. Pemberton,et al.  The Health of the Elderly At Home* , 1956, British medical journal.

[3]  F. Post.  A Mental Health Survey of Older People , 1962 .

[4]  J. Overall,et al.  The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale , 1962 .

[5]  M. Roth,et al.  Old Age Mental Disorders in Newcastle upon Tyne , 1964, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[6]  P. L. Parsons.  Mental Health of Swansea's Old Folk , 1965, British journal of preventive & social medicine.

[7]  David R. Cox.  The analysis of binary data , 1970 .

[8]  A. Heyman,et al.  Cerebrovascular Disease in the Bi‐Racial Population of Evans County, Georgia , 1971, Stroke.

[9]  C. Marsden,et al.  Outcome of Investigation of Patients with Presenile Dementia , 1972, British medical journal.

[10]  E. Pfeiffer.  A Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire for the Assessment of Organic Brain Deficit in Elderly Patients † , 1975, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[11]  A. J. Akhtar,et al.  Neurological disorders in the elderly at home. , 1976, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[12]  The investigation of dementia: the results in 100 consecutive admissions. , 1976 .

[13]  F. Freemon.  Evaluation of patients with progressive intellectual deterioration. , 1976, Archives of neurology.

[14]  L. Kiloh,et al.  THE INVESTIGATION OF DEMENTIA: RESULTS IN 200 CONSECUTIVE ADMISSIONS , 1981, The Lancet.

[15]  P. Rabins.  The prevalence of reversible dementia in a psychiatric hospital. , 1981, Hospital & community psychiatry.

[16]  P. Mölsä,et al.  Epidemiology of dementia in a Finnish population , 1982, Acta neurologica Scandinavica.

[17]  E. Kaplan,et al.  The Boston naming test , 2001 .

[18]  G. Arling,et al.  An examination of the prevalence of mental disorders among the elderly in the community. , 1983, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[19]  M. Reding,et al.  Follow Up of Patients Referred to a Dementia Service , 1984, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[20]  M. Folstein,et al.  Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease , 1984, Neurology.

[21]  E. Larson,et al.  Dementia in elderly outpatients: a prospective study. , 1984, Annals of internal medicine.

[22]  M M Weissman,et al.  Lifetime prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders in three sites. , 1984, Archives of general psychiatry.

[23]  B. Gurland.  The Mind and mood of aging : mental health problems of the community elderly in New York and London , 1984 .

[24]  M M Weissman,et al.  Six-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders in three communities 1980 to 1982. , 1984, Archives of general psychiatry.

[25]  V. Lehtinen,et al.  Prevalence of severe dementia in Finland , 1985, Neurology.

[26]  E. Skinner,et al.  Patterns of Mental Disorders among the Elderly Residents of Eastern Baltimore , 1985, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[27]  M. Folstein,et al.  The Meaning of Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly , 1985, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[28]  D. Kay,et al.  Dementia and depression among the elderly living in the Hobart community: the effect of the diagnostic criteria on the prevalence rates , 1985, Psychological Medicine.

[29]  B. Schoenberg,et al.  Severe dementia. Prevalence and clinical features in a biracial US population. , 1985, Archives of neurology.

[30]  R. Sayetta.  Rates of senile dementia, Alzheimer's type, in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study. , 1986, Journal of chronic diseases.

[31]  W. Rocca,et al.  Epidemiology of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease , 1986, Annals of neurology.

[32]  H. Kobayashi,et al.  Prevalence of dementia in a Japanese elderly population , 1986, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[33]  M. Albert,et al.  Differential patterns of memory loss among patients with Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome. , 1986, Archives of neurology.

[34]  Is case-ascertainment of Alzheimer's disease in field surveys practicable? , 1987 .

[35]  E. Kokmen,et al.  Alzheimer's disease and other dementing illnesses in a defined united states population: Incidence rates and clinical features , 1987, Annals of neurology.

[36]  J. Copeland,et al.  Range of Mental Illness Among the Elderly in the Community , 1987, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[37]  J. Wade,et al.  The clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. , 1987, Archives of neurology.

[38]  A. Afifi,et al.  Prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in a retirement community. , 1987, American journal of epidemiology.

[39]  L R White,et al.  Correlates of cognitive function in an elderly community population. , 1988, American journal of epidemiology.

[40]  N. Cook,et al.  A prospective study of incident comprehensive medical home care use among the elderly. , 1988, American journal of public health.

[41]  J.‐H. Park,et al.  Cognitive impairment among the elderly in a Korean rural community , 1988, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.