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

Abstract

Information about the epidemiology of dementia in Italy is still limited, although this cognitive disorder represents a serious public health concern. We estimated the prevalence of dementia and dementia subtypes in the elderly population of a Northern Italian municipality, Conselice, in the Emilia Romagna region (n = 1,016 subjects aged 65–97 years). The associations of dementia with two modifiable risk factors, education and occupation, were also evaluated. Overall dementia prevalence was 5.9% (95% confidence interval 4.3–7.8), exponentially increased with age, and was higher among women. Of the dementia cases, 50% were Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but an unusually high prevalence (45%) was found for vascular dementia (VD). After adjustment for age and gender, education but not occupation was associated with both AD and VD. This association could not be explained by occupation, life habits, and previous history of hypertension or cardiovascular disease.

Determinants of Neurocognitive Impairment in HIV in a Cohort of Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy Followed in Bangui (Central African Republic)

“…Cross et al 2013 in an article also showed a low level of education was associated with the occurrence of a NCD [36]. These findings corroborate the studies already conducted in the general population on dementia [40]- [42]. Thus, the low educational level reduces, in addition to the neuronal degeneration induced by the virus, neuronal plasticity phenomenon that would protect against dementia [43] [44].…”

Prévalence de la démence dans une population de personnes âgées sénégalaises

“…Ce résultat a été retrouvé lors d'études antérieures réalisées dans le monde. En Italie, Ravaglia et al [29] ont trouvé auprès d'une population de 1016 personnes âgées de 65 à 97 ans et plus réparties selon leur niveau d'instruction des prévalences de 29,3%, 9,7%, 2,1% respectivement chez les populations ayant fait 0 à 1 an d'étude, 2 à 3 ans d'étude et plus de 3 ans d'étude. Prencipe et al [27], lors d'une étude transversale menée dans trois villages d'Italie du centre, ont étudié la prévalence de la démence dans une population de 968 personnes âgées de plus de 64 ans habitant dans la zone.…”

Metabolic Syndrome

“…Brain Ageing (CSBA) is a populationbased prospective survey with the main aim of exploring dementia epidemiology and risk factors in the elderly (14). After approval by our institutional review board, written informed consent was obtained from all participants.…”

“…Except for dementia, diagnosed through a standardized workup (14), the other diagnoses were based on self-report and information from the participant's general practitioner. BMI (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) was also considered because, in elderly individuals, it is an index of both fat and lean mass, and underweight is an acknowledged mortality risk factor in older age (16,17).…”