Comparative Study of the Prevalence of Dementia in Two Sicilian Communities with Different Psychosocial Backgrounds

Abstract

The role of education and psychosocial environment as factors for the development of dementia is controversial. We carried out a comparative study on the prevalence of dementia among persons over 74 years of age in two Sicilian municipalities, Troina and S. Agata Militello, with different psychosocial backgrounds. A two-stage survey was performed for both samples. In stage 1 the Mini Mental Status Examination (previously validated for the cutoff score with 100% sensitivity and the highest specificity) was used to screen a 50% random sample of persons over 74 years of age. In those referred to stage 2, the diagnosis of dementia was made by a neurologist according to DSM-III R. Three hundred and sixty-five subjects were recruited in Troina and 408 in S. Agata Militello. The minimal estimates of dementia prevalence were 21.9% (21.9% men, 21.9% women) in Troina and 28.4% (26.6% men, 29.6% women) in S. Agata Militello. Although intrasample multiple logistic exact analysis (demented vs. unproven demented) indicated poor formal education and manual occupation as risk factors for dementia, and intersample comparison (Troina vs. S. Agata Militello) showed that these variables were more frequent in Troina, we did not find a higher prevalence of dementia in this community. We discuss this apparently ambiguous result and suggest that psychosocial and cultural variables might be considered multiple interacting factors with different protective or predisposing roles for dementia. Higher or lower risk could then be the result of this complex interaction in different populations.

Education, Occupation, and Prevalence of Dementia: Findings from the Conselice Study

“…Higher prevalence values were reported in central Italy [2,3], in 2 Southern Italian communities [5], and in Granarolo [4], a geographical area very close to that of our study. This could be due to the higher proportion of illiterate persons included in these studies.…”

“…In agreement with findings from the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging [6] and a Swedish incidence study [31], this trend was more pronounced for women than for men. In other Italian studies, by contrast, dementia prevalence has been reported to be similar in both sexes [4,5] or higher in men than in women [3].…”

“…Identification of modifiable risk factors represent one approach to the prevention of dementing disorders; but the few Italian studies focusing on the possible relationship of dementia with education and occupation have reported inconsistent results [3][4][5]11] and even fewer are the Italian studies investigating this issue with respect to specific dementia subtypes [3,4].…”

Comparative docking and ADMET study of some curcumin derivatives and herbal congeners targeting β-amyloid

“…MVD also determines volume of possible binding site before docking and cavity with largest volume is selected as docking point. Population of Indian subcontinent has very low risk of AD as compared to other continent of the world (Boersma et al 1998;Brayne et al 1998;Azzimondi et al 1998;Shaji et al 1996;Yamada et al 1999;Woo et al 1998;Lin et al 1998;Fillenbaum et al 1998;Herrera et al 1998;Lopes et al 2007). This may be due to regular consumption of curry spice turmeric and other herbal congeners by Indian population.…”

Cultural Aspects of Dementia

“…A number of the studies that have been published since 1997 report experience with the MMSE in diff e r e n t populations. [15][16][17] Teresi et al 18 studied item bias in standard cognitive screening measures in a sample of Afro-American, Hispanic and nonHispanic White elderly respondents who were part of a dementia case registry study. The psychometric methods of item-response theory were applied to identify biased items.…”