Prevalence and incidence of Alzheimers disease and other dementing disorders in Pylea, Greece

Abstract

We investigated the prevalence and incidence of dementing disorders in the city of Pylea, Greece, using a door-to-door three-phase approach, and explored the relationship between age and gender. From the initial cohort of 704-subjects, 112-subjects (15.9 percent) were excluded because they had moved out of town or could not be traced, 102-subjects (14.4 percent) died before the time of actual contact, and 110-subjects (15.6 percent) refused to be contacted. We were able to visit and examine 380-subjects (54 percent); each of them were administered the MMSE by one of three nurses and the CAMCOG by one of three physicians. We selected January 1, 1993, as the study prevalence day. Using specified diagnostic criteria, NINCDS-ADRDA and DSM-III-R, the study neurologists extensively investigated 118 from 380-subjects, who screened positive on MMSE (MMSE < 23) and CAMCOG (< 65). We found 35-subjects affected by dementia, 20 had Alzheimer's disease (AD), 11 had vascular or mixed dementia and four had secondary dementia (one Parkinson's disease, one Vitamin B12 deficiency, and two had Tumors). The estimated annual incidence rate for all forms of dementia, after correction for ageing of the samples was 57/1,000 persons aged > 70, made up of dementia of Alzheimer type (39.9/1,000), vascular dementia (13.9/1,000) and other forms (3.5/1,000). The prevalence of both dementia and AD increased steeply with advancing age and was consistently higher in women. The incidence of dementia increases with age, even in the oldest age groups and women have a higher risk of developing dementia than men. AD was the most common type of dementia. Our prevalence and incidence figures for dementia and AD are almost similar to those previously reported in Europe, the United States and Canada.

The diagnostic value of tau protein, β-amyloid (1-42) and their ratio for the discrimination of alcohol-related cognitive disorders from Alzheimer's disease in the early stages

“…AD is the main disease in the differential diagnosis, accounting for about 50-60% of all causes of dementia in most Western populations (Jellinger et al, 1990;Wallin and Blennow, 1996;Tsolaki et al, 1999). In the last decade the ante-mortem diagnostic accuracy of dementia has risen to a high degree, due to the better understanding of the clinical picture of dementias and the use of widely accepted criteria.…”

Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Dementia in Greece

“…In another study conducted at a primary health center in Northern Greece on people over 65 years ( = 536), 37.6% males and 41.6% females were found with cognitive impairment [17]. However, data concerning the sociodemographic and clinical profile, the therapeutic approach followed by physicians, and other important information regarding patients with dementia in Greece are scarce in the literature [18,19].…”

Estimation of the diagnostic threshold accounting for decision costs and sampling uncertainty

“…We used the method introduced here to estimate the threshold and a confidence interval, assigning some plausible values of prevalence and costs. As the data come from elderly people in a Greek region a plausible range of prevalence values could vary between 0.05 and 0.2, taking into account the age groups involved, since AD prevalence increases with age (Tsolaki et al ., 1999; Ferri et al ., 2005). It could even reach 0.5 if age groups of 95 years or older were taken into account.…”