Level of cognitive impairment predicts mortality in high-risk community samples: the memory and medical care study.
Over the course of 3 years, the authors investigated the relationship between severity of cognitive impairment and mortality in a community sample of 498 elders at high risk for cognitive impairment. Subjects were classified as having no cognitive disorder, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia, based on a validated battery of four neuropsychological tests. Severity of impairment was based on Mini-Mental State Examination scores. Additional data were obtained from subjects' knowledgeable informants and Medicare records. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and Cox hazard proportion analysis of the sample revealed that presence of cognitive impairment increases mortality in a fashion that parallels the severity of the impairment.
Lee
Hochang B
HB
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 550 N. Broadway, Suite 308, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Hochang@jhmi.edu
Kasper
Judy D
JD
Shore
Andrew D
AD
Yokley
Jessica L
JL
Black
Betty S
BS
Rabins
Peter V
PV
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012189:Retrospective Studies