Who are the people with Alzheimer's disease in Brazil? Findings from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging

Abstract

Objective: To describe the socioeconomic, behavioral, clinical, and health-related characteristics of Brazilian older adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: Baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging were analyzed. This nationwide survey interviewed 9,412 adults aged at least 50 years. Self-reported medical diagnosis of AD and exposure variables (sociodemographic, clinical, behavioral, and health-related) were assessed by face-to-face questionnaire-based interview. Multivariate analyses accounted for possible confounding factors, and values were reported in prevalence ratio (PR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI). Results: Participants with AD have important demographic differences compared with older non-AD participants such as low education level and retirement. Clinically, these patients reported more medical appointments, falls, and higher frequency and duration of hospitalizations compared with non-AD participants. These characteristics may be related to worse physical and mental health observed in this population. Indeed, two out of five older adults with AD in Brazil reported always feeling lonely, while two out of three said they felt depressed or sad much of the time. Adjusted analyses showed that patients with AD were 95% (95%CI 1.08 – 3.50) more likely to be hospitalized in a year compared with non-AD older adults. People with AD in Brazil were more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes (PR = 1.83 [95%CI 1.08 – 3.12]), depression (PR = 3.07% [95%CI 1.63 – 5.79]), Parkinson's disease (PR = 17.63 [95%CI 6.99 – 44.51]), and stroke (PR = 3.55 [95%CI 1.90 – 6.67]) compared with non-AD participants. Conclusion: Older adults with AD in Brazil reported impaired physical and mental health compared with the non-AD population.

Multimorbidity patterns and hospitalisation occurrence in adults and older adults aged 50 years or over

“…People with Alzheimer’s disease have a high risk of being hospitalised 48 . Another Brazilian study found that Alzheimer’s disease increases the likelihood of hospitalisation, as well as increasing the days hospitalised and the chance of being diagnosed with another chronic condition such as depression or Parkinson’s disease 49 . People with Alzheimer’s have worse health outcomes and are at greater risk of hospitalisation, readmission, increased hospitalisation days and mortality.…”

A ingestão de cafeína como fator protetor no desenvolvimento e na progressão da Doença de Parkinson e na Doença de Alzheimer: uma revisão integrativa

“…A Doença de Alzheimer (DA) é caracterizada como um distúrbio neurodegenerativo progressivo, que cursa com atrofia cerebral, demência, disfunção da cognição e declínio mental, sendo que a duração média do surgimento dos primeiros sintomas até o desfecho trágico é cerca de 10 a 20 anos (Zhou & Zhang, 2021;Kolahdouzan & Hamadeh, 2017). A DA é reponsável pela terceira maior causa de distúrbios relacionados a idade e, consequentemente, a morte, sendo que no Brasil a prevalência desses pacientes está concentrada principalmente entre 70 e 79 anos e acima de 80 anos, com destaque para as mulheres (67,9%), casadas e viúvas, com apenas educação elementar, aposentados ou desempregados; os dados mostram que os essa prevalência aumentou cerca de 127% desde 1990 e o aumento do número de pessoas com DA pode estar relacionado com a maior expectativa de vida, de forma que a população esperada acima dos 60 anos para 2050 é 284,2% maior em relação ao observado em 2000, com índice de diagnóstico aumentando em 11% por ano acrescido na idade (Feter et al, 2021).…”

“…Nesse sentido, sabemos que as síndromes demenciais tem um papel importante nesse cenário, mundialmente, a Doença de Alzheimer (DA) é responsável por 50-70% dos casos, seguida pela Doença de Parkinson (DP) (Londzin et al, 2021;Hong et al, 2020), além de outras doenças como a Demência Vascular. No Brasil, dados epidemiológicos recentes também confirmam esse padrão, ocupando o segundo lugar no ranking de prevalência de doenças demenciais, com a DA representando 70% dos casos e a DP responsável pela quarta posição no número de hospitalizações dentre as doenças que afetam o sistema nervoso e as funções cognitivas (Santos et al, 2022;Feter et al, 2021).…”

Difficulties experienced by caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease in relation to dietary care: integrative review

“…In Brazil, it is estimated that 77% of individuals with dementia have not been adequately diagnosed 7 . However, Feter et al 8 reported that in 2016, Brazil had the second highest age-standardized prevalence of dementia in the world, with AD accounting for about 70% of cases.…”