title: Mortality in incident dementia - results from the German Study on Aging, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dementia is known to increase mortality, but the relative loss of life years and contributing factors are not well established. Thus, we aimed to investigate mortality in incident dementia from disease onset.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were derived from the prospective longitudinal German AgeCoDe study. We used proportional hazards models to assess the impact of sociodemographic and health characteristics on mortality after dementia onset, Kaplan-Meier method for median survival times.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 3214 subjects at risk, 523 (16.3%) developed incident dementia during a 9-year follow-up period. Median survival time after onset was 3.2 years (95% CI = 2.8-3.7) at a mean age of 85.0 (SD = 4.0) years (≥2.6 life years lost compared with the general German population). Survival was shorter in older age, males other dementias than Alzheimer's, and in the absence of subjective memory complaints (SMC).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings emphasize that dementia substantially shortens life expectancy. Future studies should further investigate the potential impact of SMC on mortality in dementia.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health (ISAP), University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roehr
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health (ISAP), University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.|LIFE - Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Luck
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bickel
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brettschneider
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Medical Care, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: Institute of General Practice, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heser
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: H-H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: König
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Cologne, Medical Faculty, Cologne, Germany.|German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, DZNE, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jessen
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Medical Care, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mösch
authors.affiliation: Institute of General Practice, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pentzek
authors.affiliation: Work Group Medical Statistics and IT-Infrastructure, Institute for General Practice, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Steinmann
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weyerer
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Werle
authors.affiliation: Work Group Medical Statistics and IT-Infrastructure, Institute for General Practice, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wiese
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Medical Care, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scherer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.|German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, DZNE, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health (ISAP), University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Riedel-Heller
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D066252:Sociological Factors
keywords: dementia; mortality; prognosis; risk factors; subjective memory complaints