title: Early age at menopause is associated with increased risk of dementia and mortality in women with Down syndrome.
abstract: In a prospective longitudinal cohort study of dementia and mortality in persons with Down syndrome aged 45 years and older, 85 postmenopausal women were followed for a mean follow-up time of 4.3 years (range 0.0 to 7.4 years). The effect of age at menopause on age at diagnosis of dementia and survival was estimated using correlation analysis and Cox Proportional Hazard Model. We found a significant correlation between age at menopause and age at diagnosis of dementia (rho=0.52; p< 0.001), and between age at menopause and age at death (rho=0.49; p=0.01). Early age at menopause is associated with a 1.8 fold increased risk of dementia: Hazard Ratio (HR): 1.82 (95%Confidence Interval (CI): 1.31-2.52) and with risk of death: HR: 2.05 (95%CI: 1.33-3.16). Our study suggests that age at menopause in women with Down syndrome is a determinant of age at onset of dementia and mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Dichterbij, Centre for the Intellectually Disabled, Gennep, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Antonia M W
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Coppus
authors.forename: Heleen M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Evenhuis
authors.forename: Gert-Jan
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Verberne
authors.forename: Frank E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.forename: Piet
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eikelenboom
authors.forename: Willem A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: van Gool
authors.forename: A Cecile J W
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Janssens
authors.forename: Cornelia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: van Duijn
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003704:Dementia / Q000209:etiology*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008593:Menopause / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors