Hypertension increases the probability of Alzheimer's disease and of mild cognitive impairment in an Arab community in northern Israel.
BACKGROUND
We aimed to determine whether vascular risk factors are associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in an elderly Arab population.


METHODS
An Arabic-speaking team performed a door-to-door survey of consecutive residents aged > or =65 years. We estimated the odds of AD or MCI versus normal controls as a function of age, gender, education and presence of vascular factors by multinomial logistic regression with interactions.


RESULTS
Out of 767 subjects (54% men), 444 were cognitively normal, 234 had MCI and 89 had AD. AD was significantly associated with hypertension (p = 0.01; OR = 2.08; 95% CI: 1.18-3.65), age (p < 0.0001; OR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.14-1.24), female gender (p = 0.0016; OR = 3.06; 95% CI: 1.53-6.15) and education (p = 0.0002; OR = 0.75; 95% CI: 0.65-0.88). MCI was significantly associated with hypertension (p = 0.0042; OR = 1.69; 95% CI: 1.25-2.44), age (p < 0.0001; OR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.03-1.09) and education (p < 0.0001; OR = 0.76; 95% CI: 0.71-0.83), but not with gender.


CONCLUSIONS
Hypertension, older age and low education significantly increase the probability of AD and MCI. The effect of hypertension on the odds of AD versus controls is over and above the effects of age, gender and education. For MCI versus controls there is no gender effect, and the effect of hypertension is over and above the effects of age and education.
Israeli-Korn
S D
SD
Sagol Neuroscience Center, Department of Neurology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
Masarwa
M
M
Schechtman
E
E
Abuful
A
A
Strugatsky
R
R
Avni
S
S
Farrer
L A
LA
Friedland
R P
RP
Inzelberg
R
R
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D018912:Arabs; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors