title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Cardioangiology, and Hepatology, University Hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy. ravaglia@almadns.unibo.it
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ravaglia
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Forti
authors.forename: Fabiola
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maioli
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sacchetti
authors.forename: Erminia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mariani
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nativio
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Talerico
authors.forename: Chaira
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vettori
authors.forename: Pier Luigi
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Macini
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000453:epidemiology; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009790:Occupations; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution