Each study has a usefulness score out of 100 (rubric version 4.0). Tap a score to see what makes it up.
Highest usefulness score first. Studies without a score come last.
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African Americans have higher incidence of, and mortality from, many health-related problems than European Americans.
Why it matters
This paper argues that vitamin D deficiency is common in African Americans and that moderate-to-strong evidence links higher vitamin D levels or supplementation to reduced risk for several conditions, including Alzheimer's disease and dementia. It suggests people with low vitamin D status consider supplements, but this is a review of evidence rather than a trial proving prevention.
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Looking at the complex effects of a global pandemic through the experiences of people living with dementia and their care partners is vital to inform healthcare priorities to restore their quality of life and health and better prepare for the future.
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Mean density of neurologists varied nearly 4-fold from the lowest to the highest density quintile (9.7 [95% confidence interval (CI) 9.2-10.2] vs 43.1 [95% CI 37.6-48.5] per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries).
Why it matters
This study found that the supply of neurologists varies substantially by region, but the prevalence of neurologic conditions does not. It found that as neurologist supply increases, access to neurologist care for dementia, pain, and stroke increases much more than for Parkinson disease and multiple sclerosis.
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Composite scores may be useful to summarize overall language or visuospatial functioning in studies of older adults.
Why it matters
This work developed and validated language and visuospatial composite scores using cognitive data from ADNI. It concerns measurement tools for research and assessment, not treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The sample included 55.6% patients with MCI and 56 people with SCD.
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At ward level, professionals and residents rated the average achieved level of shared decision-making 71.53/100 (σ = 16.09) and 81.11/100 (σ = 19.18) respectively.
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Derangements in cerebrovascular structure and function can impair cognitive performance throughout ageing and in cardiometabolic disease states, thus increasing dementia risk.
Why it matters
This review found that exercise can improve blood vessel function in the brain, cognition and neuroplasticity in adults aged 50 and older. It notes that more research is needed, and it does not prove that exercise prevents dementia.
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Data collection will begin in four Canadian provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan) in February 2020 and is expected to be completed in June 2021.
Why it matters
This is only a protocol for testing an online tool meant to support family carers of people with dementia in long-term care. No results are reported, so it cannot yet show any effect on carers or on Alzheimer's disease itself.
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Baseline cognition was poorer in individuals born and residing in the South, particularly those attending desegregated schools at age 12.
Why it matters
This study found that Southern birth was associated with lower baseline global cognition and all cognitive domains compared to Northern birth, but not with cognitive change over time, in older Black adults without dementia. It examines early-life factors and cognitive levels, not any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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52/100
Comprehensive nurse practitioner dementia care co-management reduced ED visits, shortened hospital length of stay, increased hospice use, and delayed admission to long-term care.
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No clear conclusion can be drawn on the effectiveness of psychoactive cannabinoids in the treatment of psychiatric manifestations, in particular agitation and aggression, in AD.
Why it matters
This review of six clinical trials of psychoactive cannabinoids for agitation and aggression in Alzheimer's dementia found multiple sources of bias and two factors that prevented conclusive results. Because of this, it cannot establish whether these cannabinoids are effective or safe for these symptoms.
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Attrition was most likely to occur in participants who were older, male, inactive, socially isolated, and cognitively impaired.
Why it matters
In a 10-year longitudinal aging study, 77% of participants dropped out, and those more likely to drop out were older, male, had lower cognitive test scores and higher clinical dementia ratings, among other factors. The authors note that attrition risk factors may resemble risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia, potentially biasing study results, but this concerns study design and interpretation, not treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The ZBI-7 is a valid instrument for measuring caregiver burden in PC.
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Delayed discharge is associated with higher hospital costs and complication rates especially nosocomial infections.
Why it matters
This retrospective cohort study found that delayed hospital discharge was associated with higher hospital costs and complication rates, and that dementia was among the predictors of delayed discharge. It concerns hospital discharge planning and costs, not the treatment, cure or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
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At year 1, persons with ADRD improved on all scales, except MMSE and functional status measures; caregivers improved on all scales.
Why it matters
This study found that a comprehensive dementia care program was associated with clinical benefit for many patients and caregivers at one year, though patients did not improve on MMSE or functional status measures. It does not test a cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease, but it suggests that health system-based care management may improve clinical outcomes for patients and caregivers.
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Neurological and mental illnesses account for a considerable proportion of the global burden of disease.
Why it matters
This review argues that exercise affects the brain partly through substances released by working muscle ("myokines"). It describes evidence that one, cathepsin B, "passes through the blood-brain barrier to enhance brain-derived neurotrophic factor production and hence neurogenesis, memory and learning", while describing that evidence as still "accumulating". It links exercise to "decreased risks of dementia" as an association, but it is a review that tests no treatment and does not examine Alzheimer's disease in patients.
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Age-related hearing loss (ARHL), also called presbycusis, is a progressive disorder affecting hearing functions and among the elderly has been recognized as the third most frequent condition.
Why it matters
This review states that age-related hearing loss has been defined as a modifiable risk factor with the greatest impact on dementia, but that drawing causal inferences is difficult because the two conditions can occur together. It suggests tailoring rehabilitation, but reports no treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Reducing heavy alcohol use may be an effective dementia prevention strategy.
Why it matters
This scoping review found that light to moderate alcohol use in middle to late adulthood was associated with decreased risk of cognitive impairment and dementia, while heavy alcohol use was associated with increased risk of all types of dementia. Causality could not be established, and reducing heavy alcohol use is suggested as a possible prevention strategy.
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Neuropsychological tests showed significant differences between controls and mdMCI, and between controls and eD participants; GPCog, MoCA, PF, and SF also discriminated between controls and aMCI.
Why it matters
This study found that computer analysis of speech features could distinguish people with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia from controls. The authors say longer follow-up studies are needed before this can be confirmed as a way to detect very early decline.
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This article summarizes the presentations and recommendations of the tenth annual American Geriatrics Society and National Institute on Aging Bench-to-Bedside research conference, "Sensory Impairment and Cognitive Decline," on October 2-3, 2017, in Bethesda, Maryland.
Why it matters
This 2017 expert conference summary notes that vision, hearing and thinking problems show up together in older adults more often than chance alone would explain, which the authors say suggests some common mechanisms *might* be involved. It did not test any treatment and reports no new patient data. Instead, it sets out research priorities in three areas (mechanisms, measurement and interventions), focusing on vision and hearing only. It is a research roadmap, not evidence that treating hearing or vision loss changes dementia risk.
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Diet may be an important modifiable risk factor for maintenance of cognitive health in later life.
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A subgroup of patients with Alzheimer's disease was identified and compared to patients with other and unspecified types of dementia.
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52/100
Among Swedish women, a high cardiovascular fitness in midlife was associated with a decreased risk of subsequent dementia.
Why it matters
In Swedish women followed for 44 years, high cardiovascular fitness in midlife was associated with a decreased risk of dementia, and it delayed dementia onset by 9.5 years compared with medium fitness. Promoting high cardiovascular fitness may be included in strategies to mitigate or prevent dementia.
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Geroscience, the new interdisciplinary field that aims to understand the relationship between aging and chronic age-related diseases (ARDs) and geriatric syndromes (GSs), is based on epidemiological evidence and experimental data that aging is the major risk factor for such pathologies and assumes that aging and ARDs/GSs share a common set of basic biological mechanisms.
Why it matters
This review proposes that aging and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's share a common set of basic biological mechanisms, and that these diseases can be viewed as accelerated aging. It argues for identifying markers of biological age to find people at higher risk, but reports no treatment or cure.
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Further guidelines should be developed to help clinicians to promptly refer terminal cancer and non-cancer patients to hospice care.
From across this topic
10 of the 7,967 studies in this topic, picked by a fixed rule (a hash of each study's address), not by score or date; each page of this list shows a different 10. The same 10 appear here every time.
- The measurement of cognition in large-scale cross-national surveys: lessons from the Health and Retirement Study International Network of Studies and the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol
- Inflammation, depression and dementia: are they connected?
- Hypertension, Neurovascular Dysfunction, and Cognitive Impairment
- Lifestyle for Brain Health (LIBRA): a new model for dementia prevention
- A Data-Driven Approach to Defining Risk-Adjusted Coding Specificity Metrics for a Large U.S. Dementia Patient Cohort
- Cognitive, psychiatric and motor response to galantamine in Parkinson's disease with dementia
- A conceptual framework for research on subjective cognitive decline in preclinical Alzheimer's disease
- Epidemiology of stroke and transient ischemic attacks: Current knowledge and perspectives
- Blood Pressure, Antihypertensive Use, and Late-Life Alzheimer and Non-Alzheimer Dementia Risk: An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis
- [The Mini-Mental State Examination as a selected diagnostic test for dementia: a Colombian population study. GENECO]