Prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia: association with education. The Rotterdam study.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of dementia and its subtypes in the general population and examine the relation of the disease to education.


METHODS
Population based cross sectional study.


METHODS
Ommoord, a suburb of Rotterdam.


METHODS
7528 participants of the Rotterdam study aged 55-106 years.


RESULTS
474 cases of dementia were detected, giving an overall prevalence of 6.3%. Prevalence ranged from 0.4% (5/1181 subjects) at age 55-59 years to 43.2% (19/44) at 95 years and over. Alzheimer's disease was the main subdiagnosis (339 cases; 72%); it was also the main cause of the pronounced increase in dementia with age. The relative proportion of vascular dementia (76 cases; 16%), Parkinson's disease dementia (30; 6%), and other dementias (24; 5%) decreased with age. A substantially higher prevalence of dementia was found in subjects with a low level of education. The association with education was not due to confounding by cardiovascular disease.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of dementia increases exponentially with age. About one third of the population aged 85 and over has dementia. Three quarters of all dementia is due to Alzheimer's disease. In this study an inverse dose-response relation was found between education and dementia--in particular, Alzheimer's disease.
Ott
A
A
Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Breteler
M M
MM
van Harskamp
F
F
Claus
J J
JJ
van der Cammen
T J
TJ
Grobbee
D E
DE
Hofman
A
A
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors