Progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia: a 3-year longitudinal study.
OBJECTIVE
To examine characteristics that predict the progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia.


METHODS
Of 970 patients recruited from nine memory clinics around Australia, 185 had mild cognitive impairment diagnosed. Measures of cognitive ability, functional ability, and neuropsychiatric symptoms were completed at baseline and over 3 years of follow up.


RESULTS
Over 3 years, 52 (28%) patients with mild cognitive impairment developed dementia. Older age, lower cognitive ability at baseline, and faster decline in cognitive ability over the first 6 months of follow up, but not depression, predicted progression to dementia.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings confirm that simple clinical data such as age, cognitive ability at baseline, and rate of cognitive decline are important predictors of progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia over 3 years.
Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia h.brodaty@unsw.edu.au.
Henry
H
Brodaty
Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Michael H
MH
Connors
National Ageing Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia University of Melbourne Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, Melbourne, Australia.
David
D
Ames
Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Australia.
Michael
M
Woodward
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
Dementia; depression; longitudinal studies; mild cognitive impairment; risk factors