title: Prevalence of dementia in a semi-rural population of Catalunya, Spain.
abstract: This study was to investigate the prevalence of dementia in an aging population. A two-phase model was used to obtain information on the socio-demographic, medical and cognitive status of subjects over 65 years of age (n = 516), resident on December 31, 1990, within the general population (n = 3,457) of La Selva del Camp. A diagnostic protocol, following the criteria of DSM-III, was designed for application to all subjects. We diagnosed 64 subjects with dementia, which represented a prevalence of 14.9% of which 3.2% was classified as severe, 4.5% as moderate and 7.3% as slight. The prevalence by age and sex showed a large increase with age and a higher prevalence in females, although the latter was not statistically significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hospital Sant Joan de Reus, Faculty of Medicine, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pi
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Olivé
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Masana
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology