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28/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 28 out of 100. Down syndrome and Alzheimer's

Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies

A fifteen-year follow up of the linguistic and cognitive profile of a woman, named Françoise, with standard trisomy 21. She had been studied in considerable detail between 1987 and 1991 by Rondal (1995) and found to have exceptionally good language abilities in advance of regular cognitive abilities for a person with Down syndrome. Françoise's psychological functioning has been deteriorating relatively rapidly over the last two years. A severe deterioration of her previously excellent receptive language abilities is documented in the present study. Productively, her on-line word finding is becoming problematic, mean length of utterance has halved compared with 15 years ago, and production of compound sentences is reduced. However, basic phonological and morphosyntactic skills are preserved. Françoise's changing profile during the latter years seems to mirror that documented in the first stages of Alzheimer disease in ageing adults in the general population.

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

APA 7th

Rondal, J. A., Elbouz, M., Ylieff, M., & Docquier, L. (2003). Françoise, a fifteen-year follow up. Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre. https://doi.org/10.3104/case-studies.135

Vancouver

Rondal JA, Elbouz M, Ylieff M, Docquier L. Françoise, a fifteen-year follow up. Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre. 2003. doi:10.3104/case-studies.135. PMID: 14502836.

BibTeX

@article{rondal2003-14502836,
  author  = {Rondal, J. A. and Elbouz, M. and Ylieff, M. and Docquier, L.},
  title   = {{Françoise, a fifteen-year follow up}},
  journal = {Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre},
  year    = {2003},
  doi     = {10.3104/case-studies.135},
  pmid    = {14502836},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.3104/case-studies.135}
}

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Key findings

Productively, her on-line word finding is becoming problematic, mean length of utterance has halved compared with 15 years ago, and production of compound sentences is reduced.

Why it matters

This fifteen-year follow-up of one woman with trisomy 21 documents declining language abilities that resemble early Alzheimer's disease. As a single-person descriptive report, it offers no information on treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.

Study details

Evidence strengthLow

How this study scored 28/100

Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on senior author's track record, so that was left out: it earned 27 of the 96 points we could judge it on, which is 28 out of 100.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	7 / 10	Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre)
Journal's citation record	0 / 4	Down Syndrome Research and Practice: journal h-index 50 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	0 / 12	No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Strength of evidence	1 / 5	Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	1 / 5	2003 — older than 20 years, still counted
Sample size	0 / 4	Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	3 / 3	Studied in people (pubmed indexes it as a clinical or observational study)
Randomised / blinded	0 / 2	No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited	2 / 7	Cited 8 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	0 / 5	0.3 citations a year over 25 year(s) since 2003
Impact for its field and year	0 / 6	Cited 0.0× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	0 / 6	No other study in this library cites it
Still being cited	0 / 4	Cited 0 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	— / 4	OpenAlex's profile for last-listed author Laurence Docquier holds only 7 work(s), too few to judge a track record — left out of this score
Institution's track record	1 / 3	University of Liège: institution h-index 901 (OpenAlex)
Multi-centre collaboration	0 / 3	OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete)
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 14502836)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Points	27 / 96	Scored on 19 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 27 of the 96 points we could judge it on is 28 out of 100.
Total	28 / 100	—

What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →

Read the original

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Studies this one cites

Referenced by this study and also in the alzhub library, so you can read them here.

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