title: Prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer's disease in Europe: A meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A disease of unknown aetiology, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. As the elderly population grows worldwide, the number of patients with AD also increases rapidly. The aim of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of AD in Europe.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a literature search on Medline, Scopus, and CINAHL Complete using the keywords «Alzheimer», «Alzheimer's disease», and «AD» combined with «prevalence», «incidence», and «epidemiology». A Bayesian random effects model with 95% credible intervals was used. The I2statistic was applied to assess heterogeneity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in Europe was estimated at 5.05% (95% CI, 4.73-5.39). The prevalence in men was 3.31% (95% CI, 2.85-3.80) and in women, 7.13% (95% CI, 6.56-7.72), and increased with age. The incidence of Alzheimer's disease in Europe was 11.08 per 1000 person-years (95% CI, 10.30-11.89). Broken down by sex, it was 7.02 per 1000 person-years (95% CI, 6.06-8.05) in men and 13.25 per 1000 person-years (95% CI, 12.05-14.51) in women; again these rates increased with age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of our meta-analysis allow a better grasp of the impact of this disease in Europe.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, España. Electronic address: niu.74609@e.unavarra.es.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, España.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Álvarez-Álvarez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, España; Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Navarra (IDISNA), Pamplona, Navarra, España; Medicina Preventiva, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, España.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guillén-Grima
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, España.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aguinaga-Ontoso
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Enfermedad de Alzheimer; Epidemiology; Epidemiología; Europa; Europe; Incidence; Incidencia; Meta-analysis; Metaanálisis; Prevalence; Prevalencia