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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High white matter grade (WMG) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a risk factor for dementia, stroke and disability.
Why it matters
This study found that low white matter grade and low ventricular grade on brain MRI were markers for lower mortality and greater longevity over 10 or more years of follow-up. It concerns longevity markers and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Most of PDD and DLB participants were PIGD subtype at baseline assessment.
Why it matters
In people with Parkinson's disease, a postural instability gait difficulty motor subtype was associated with faster cognitive decline and higher incidence of dementia over two years. This describes a risk marker within Parkinson's disease and does not test any treatment.
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51/100
Voluntary physical activity and exercise training can favorably influence brain plasticity by facilitating neurogenerative, neuroadaptive, and neuroprotective processes.
Why it matters
This review states that physical activity and exercise can influence brain plasticity and lists Alzheimer's dementia among conditions with implications for prevention and treatment. It is a general review and does not report a specific tested treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology.
Why it matters
A methods paper on thematic analysis, a way of analysing qualitative data in psychology. It explains what the method is, gives guidelines for carrying it out, and weighs its advantages and disadvantages. It is not about Alzheimer's disease.
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51/100
Dementia is one of the major causes of dependency after stroke.
Why it matters
This review reports that having a stroke doubles the risk of dementia, and that poststroke dementia may result from vascular lesions, Alzheimer pathology, white-matter changes, or combinations of these. It lists many patient-related and stroke-related factors associated with increased risk, and notes that patients with poststroke dementia have high mortality rates.
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Our findings suggest that the onset of dementia-related syndromes may be initiated by repetitive cerebral concussions in professional football players.
Why it matters
In a survey of 2,552 retired professional football players, those reporting three or more concussions had a fivefold prevalence of diagnosed mild cognitive impairment and a threefold prevalence of significant memory problems compared with retirees reporting none. The study found no association between recurrent concussion and Alzheimer's disease itself, though Alzheimer's appeared earlier in these retirees than in the general American male population. These are survey-based associations and do not show that concussions cause cognitive decline.
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Dementia-associated weight loss begins before the onset of the clinical syndrome and accelerates by the time of diagnosis.
Why it matters
In this 32-year study of Japanese American men, weight change from mid to late life did not differ between those with and without dementia, but in the final 6 years men with incident dementia had an additional yearly weight loss of 0.36 kg. This describes weight loss around the time of dementia onset and does not treat, cure, or prevent Alzheimer's disease.
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Approximately 40% of the subjects were APOE epsilon4 carriers.
Why it matters
Among 494 people with mild cognitive impairment, those carrying the APOE epsilon 4 allele had lower scores on cognitive tests and greater impairments in memory and daily activities, along with more hippocampal shrinkage. The authors note these carriers showed profiles resembling those of early Alzheimer's patients.
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The different distribution of pathologic features in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer disease (AD) predicts a predominant dysexecutive syndrome in FTD.
Why it matters
The Frontal Assessment Battery was tested in 26 patients with frontotemporal dementia and 64 with Alzheimer's disease to see if it could tell the two apart. This is a diagnostic tool study and says nothing about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Hippocampal atrophy (HA) is usually attributed to the neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques of Alzheimer disease.
Why it matters
In Japanese-American men, those never treated with antihypertensive medication had a significantly increased risk of hippocampal atrophy, with higher risks in untreated men with high systolic or diastolic blood pressure. This links midlife blood pressure to later hippocampal atrophy, but it does not show that blood pressure treatment prevents Alzheimer disease.
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Disturbed sleep cycles are the principal cause of institutionalization in dementia, and therefore represent a major clinical problem.
Why it matters
This study found that moderately demented home-dwelling patients had disturbed activity/rest cycles, while mildly demented patients had rhythms comparable to healthy age-matched subjects. It describes changes in daily rhythms in early Alzheimer's dementia but does not test any treatment or cure.
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Older people in developing countries are indivisible from their younger family members.
Why it matters
In what it calls the first comprehensive look at dementia care in developing countries, this 2004 study interviewed 706 people with dementia and their caregivers (mostly women living in extended families) at 24 centres in India, China, South East Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Caregiver strain was "at least as high as in the developed world" despite family-based care. Many caregivers cut back on work, and families in the poorest countries often paid for expensive private medical care, spending more than 10% of per-capita GNP on health. The study describes care arrangements and associations, such as larger households being linked to lower strain for live-in caregivers; it does not test any treatment.
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The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is the most widely used brief screening measure of cognition, but it is not sensitive in detecting mild memory or other cognitive impairments.
Why it matters
This study compared the Short Test of Mental Status and the Mini-Mental State Examination for detecting or predicting mild cognitive impairment. It is about comparing screening tests, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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A literature search was conducted to identify the most frequently affected cognitive domains in PD and to select candidate items for the initial scale.
Why it matters
This study developed a short instrument, the SCOPA-COG, to assess the specific cognitive deficits of Parkinson's disease, testing it in 85 patients and 75 matched control subjects. It is a cognitive assessment tool and does not treat, cure or prevent Alzheimer's disease.
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Although essential tremor (ET) is considered the most prevalent adult movement disorder, the available information on its prevalence and distribution worldwide is not completely understood.
Why it matters
This door-to-door survey in central Spain found that essential tremor was common in older adults and that most cases had not been diagnosed before. It is about how often essential tremor occurs, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The early diagnosis of vascular cognitive impairment has been challenged and executive control function has been suggested to be a rational basis for the diagnosis of vascular dementia.
Why it matters
This study examined executive dysfunction and its correlates, including post-stroke depression, in a stroke cohort. It concerns vascular cognitive impairment after stroke, not the treatment, cure or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
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The authors report the prevalence of dementia in a community-dwelling Brazilian elderly population and correlate prevalence data with educational and socioeconomic levels.
Why it matters
This survey measured how common dementia is in a community-dwelling elderly population in Brazil and linked the findings to education and socioeconomic levels. It describes who has dementia rather than testing any way to treat, cure or prevent it.
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The findings confirm predictions regarding behavioural differences in frontotemporal and semantic dementia and point to differential roles of the frontal and temporal lobes in affect, social functioning, eating, and compulsive behaviour.
Why it matters
Carers of patients with frontotemporal dementia and semantic dementia reported distinct behavioural patterns, and emotional and repetitive compulsive behaviours separated the two groups with 97% accuracy. This concerns diagnosis and disease description rather than treating, curing or preventing dementia.
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In multivariate analysis, feeding tube use was found to be associated with swallowing problems (odds ratio (OR) 5.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.3-6.8); urban location of nursing home (OR 2.9, 95% CI 2.3-3.5); non-white race (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.9-3.6); stroke (OR 2.5, 95% CI 2.0-3.1); and absence of dementia (OR 2.5, 95% CI 2.0-3.1).
Why it matters
This study examined factors linked to feeding tube use in nursing home residents with severe cognitive impairment. It does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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51/100
The Mini-Cog, a composite of three-item recall and clock drawing, was developed as a brief test for discriminating demented from non-demented persons in a community sample of culturally, linguistically, and educationally heterogeneous older adults.
Why it matters
This study evaluated the Mini-Cog, a composite of three-item recall and clock drawing, as a brief test for discriminating demented from non-demented persons in a community sample of culturally, linguistically and educationally heterogeneous older adults. The Mini-Cog had the highest sensitivity (99%) and correctly classified the greatest percentage (96%) of subjects compared with the MMSE and CASI.
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Both scales are useful instruments for the clinical assessment of fluctuation in dementia.
Why it matters
This study found that two rating scales for fluctuating confusion correlated significantly with each other and with neuropsychological and electrophysiological measures of fluctuation. It concluded that both scales are useful instruments for the clinical assessment of fluctuation in dementia.
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Executive dysfunction was found to be associated with relapse and recurrence of geriatric major depression and with residual depressive symptoms.
Why it matters
In this sample of 58 elderly people whose major depression had remitted, executive dysfunction was linked to relapse and recurrence of depression, while memory impairment was not. This study looked at depression outcomes, not at treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Current classification structures for dementia may not be adequate in diabetes, where mixed pathogenesis is likely.
Why it matters
This review found evidence linking Type 2 diabetes to cognitive impairment and to higher risk of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, with other factors such as hypertension and apolipoprotein E also involved. It suggests further research into mechanisms may challenge the idea that dementia is always irreversible, but offers no treatment or cure.
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Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is an increasingly recognized autosomal dominant disorder that leads to cerebrovascular manifestations in early adulthood.
Why it matters
This study describes the phenotypic spectrum of CADASIL, an autosomal dominant disorder leading to cerebrovascular manifestations in early adulthood, with 28% of cases developing dementia. No information on treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease is provided in the available text.
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This study confirms that healthy senior citizens as well as senior citizens with underlying medical conditions are at risk for the serious complications of influenza and benefit from vaccination.
Why it matters
This study of senior health plan members found that influenza vaccination over six seasons was linked to an overall 39% reduction in pneumonia hospitalizations. It is about flu vaccination and pneumonia, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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.
- Cognitive training in older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment: Impact on cognitive and functional performance
- Designing a Palliative Care Pathway for Enhanced Dementia Care
- Mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia: a clinical perspective
- Sources of stress for family members of nursing home residents with advanced dementia
- A prospective study of delirium in hospitalized elderly
- Attitudes towards euthanasia among physicians, nurses and the general public in Finland
- Cultural variation in trust and acceptability of artificial intelligence diagnostics for dementia
- Variation in Medicare Part D and Part B drug spending among older adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
- Microglia in health and disease
- Risk of Dementia Diagnosis After Injurious Falls in Older Adults