title: Do subjective memory complaints predict senile Alzheimer dementia?
abstract: Many elderly complain about their memory and undergo dementia screening by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). While objective memory impairment always precedes Alzheimer dementia (AD) it is unclear whether subjective memory complaints are predicting AD. We tried to answer this question in a prospective cohort study. The 75-years old non-demented inhabitants of Vienna-Transdanube were investigated for conversion to AD after 30 months. The predictive value of subjective memory complaints was analysed in two groups: subjects with high MMSE-score (28-30) and subjects with low MMSE-score (23-27). Only in subjects with high MMSE univariate analyses showed an association between subjective memory complaints and incident AD. In both groups the verbal memory test was the main predictor of AD in multivariate analyses. We suggest to perform memory testing in subjects complaining about memory irrespective of their performance in a screening procedure like the MMSE.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Aging Research, Vienna, Austria. Susanne.Jungwirth@wienkav.at
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jungwirth
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zehetmayer
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weissgram
authors.forename: Germain
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Karl Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Tragl
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001317:Austria; D001364:Awareness; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D011939:Mental Recall; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results