Education, occupation, and prevalence of dementia: findings from the Conselice study.
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.
Ravaglia
Giovanni
G
Department of Internal Medicine, Cardioangiology, and Hepatology, University Hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy. ravaglia@almadns.unibo.it
Forti
Paola
P
Maioli
Fabiola
F
Sacchetti
Loredana
L
Mariani
Erminia
E
Nativio
Valeria
V
Talerico
Teresa
T
Vettori
Chaira
C
Macini
Pier Luigi
PL
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