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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The Diagnostic Statistical Manual-5 (DSM-5) has included a category named the neurocognitive disorder which was formally known in DSM-IV as 'dementia, delirium, amnestic, and other cognitive disorders'.
Why it matters
The DSM-5 introduced mild neurocognitive disorder, which may or may not progress to dementia, and current understanding comes from research on mild cognitive impairment. There is no clear treatment for mild neurocognitive disorder, but future experimental therapies will focus on secondary prevention to decrease the risk of progression to major neurocognitive disorder.
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388,899 deaths were included. Most people died in care homes (55.3%) or hospitals (39.6%).
Why it matters
This population study found that most people with dementia in England died in care homes or hospitals, and that a rise in hospital deaths reversed in 2006 as care home deaths increased. It concerns place of death and end-of-life care, not treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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POCD can markedly impair postoperative recovery.
Why it matters
This review reports that postoperative cognitive dysfunction is usually transient, and that multiple randomized controlled trials found the method of anesthesia does not play a causal role in prolonged cognitive impairment. It notes that persistent postoperative cognitive dysfunction enters into the differential diagnosis of dementia and is associated with higher mortality, but it reports no treatment or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Grey matter changes in PDD involve areas associated with Alzheimer-like pathology while fronto-parietal abnormalities are possibly an early marker of PD cognitive decline.
Why it matters
This imaging study found two patterns of gray matter changes in people with Parkinson's disease and cognitive impairment, including reductions in the hippocampus and temporal lobes in Parkinson's disease dementia. It is about understanding brain changes in Parkinson's disease, not about treating or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Frailty is commonly considered as a syndrome with several symptoms, including weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slow walking speed and physical inactivity.
Why it matters
This population-based study of 654 people aged 76 to 100 examined whether frailty was associated with cognitive impairment or diagnosed dementia at one point in time. It is a cross-sectional association study and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Symptoms revealed as "most problematic" varied by measurement criterion.
Why it matters
In a survey of 177 dementia caregivers, the behaviour symptoms that were most common (apathy, depression, agitation) were not the ones caregivers found most distressing (delusions, agitation, irritability). Memory problems were the most frequent but the least distressing, and disruptive behaviour was the least frequent but the most distressing. The study tested no treatment. Its point is that "the most problematic symptom" depends on whether you count how common it is, how intense it is, how upsetting it is to the caregiver, or how it relates to caregiver depression.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in early to mid-life is associated with an increased risk of dementia in late life.
Why it matters
Using National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center data over 5 years, this study examined the clinical features of dementia after traumatic brain injury to see whether it resembles Alzheimer's disease or another condition such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It is about describing dementia after injury, not treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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As life expectancy lengthens, dementia is becoming a significant human condition in terms of its prevalence and cost to society worldwide.
Why it matters
This article describes links between heart disease and dementia and notes that several cardiovascular risk factors are preventable and treatable. It does not report any trial result showing that treating heart disease prevents, treats, or cures Alzheimer's disease.
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Neuropsychiatric symptoms are prevalent in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD) and commonly measured using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).
Why it matters
This preliminary validation study tested three subscales of a questionnaire that measures symptom clusters in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. It is about measuring symptoms, not about treating, curing, or preventing the disease.
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Maintenance of brain function depends on a constant blood supply.
Why it matters
This review describes how hypertension changes the structure and function of cerebral arteries, which can reduce blood flow and worsen damage after ischemia. It identifies mechanisms rather than testing any treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
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46/100
Heart disease is the major leading cause of death and disability in the world.
Why it matters
This paper reviews evidence linking cardiovascular risk factors and chronic brain hypoperfusion to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease, and suggests a neuronal energy crisis may lead to amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. It offers insight into possible mechanisms but no proven treatment, cure or prevention.
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It has been suggested that a theory of mind deficit may account for some of the abnormalities in interpersonal behaviour that characterize patients affected by behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia.
Why it matters
This study found that patients with Alzheimer's disease and patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia had different patterns of theory of mind deficits, linked to different brain regions. It provides information about how these diseases affect social reasoning but does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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This study aimed to determine the stratified normative data by age and education for a modified version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) test from a large sample of community-dwelling Chinese older adults in Singapore, and to examine the MMSE's value in detecting early cognitive impairment.
Why it matters
This study derived normative Mini-Mental State Examination values by age and education for 1,763 cognitively normal Singapore Chinese older adults and examined the test's value in detecting early cognitive impairment in 121 others. It is about interpreting a screening test, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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46/100
With the suggested adaptations, the CDN is expected to be a useful tool for supporting community-dwelling persons with mild dementia and their carers.
Why it matters
People with mild dementia living at home and their carers helped design and test the COGKNOW Day Navigator, a touch-screen, mobile and sensor system meant to support memory, social contact, daily activities and safety, over three yearly test rounds in Amsterdam, Belfast and Luleå (16, 14 and 12 people with dementia in turn). Participants rated it "overall as user-friendly and useful". The authors say they could not judge whether it actually helps in daily life, because testing was cut short by development delays and "some instability of the final prototype".
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10 years into PD, a significant proportion of patients developed dopa resistant motor and non-motor features.
Why it matters
This study followed people with Parkinson's disease for about ten years and found that many developed dementia and other problems, with dementia linked to higher risk of death. It is about Parkinson's disease outcomes and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's.
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The booklet is suitable to inform Dutch and Canadian families on comfort care in dementia, but implementation in Italy requires further consideration.
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46/100
Dementia is under-diagnosed to a greater extent among ethnic minorities in the age group 60 years and older but is over-diagnosed in the age group younger than 60 years.
Why it matters
This register study found that dementia was under-diagnosed among ethnic minorities aged 60 and older in Denmark, but over-diagnosed in those younger than 60, compared with the general population. It addresses diagnosis patterns rather than treatment, cure or prevention.
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Cognitive impairment is common in Parkinson's disease (PD).
Why it matters
A Parkinson Study Group task force reviewed the literature to recommend a brief cognitive screening scale for Parkinson's disease trials where cognition is not the main outcome. It is about measuring cognition in trials, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The results in this study demonstrated that the Zarit Burden Interview is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the burden of caregivers of PWD in Singapore.
Why it matters
This study of 238 caregivers found that the Zarit Burden Interview is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring caregiver burden in Singapore. It is about a measurement tool and does not test any treatment or cure for Alzheimer's disease.
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The human anterior insula is anatomically and functionally heterogeneous, containing key nodes within distributed speech-language and viscero-autonomic/social-emotional networks.
Why it matters
This paper describes how frontotemporal dementias damage the anterior insula and related brain networks, leading to problems with social and emotional functions. It is about understanding these diseases and states that the search for treatments will depend on better understanding insular biology.
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We evaluated the psychometric properties of the 12-item interviewer-administered screener version of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule-version II (WHODAS II) among older people living in seven low- and middle-income countries.
Why it matters
The 12-item WHODAS II disability screener performed as a unidimensional and hierarchical scale across sites in seven low- and middle-income countries. This is a measurement study of a disability questionnaire and does not address treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Social, psychological, and psychiatric characteristics were compared in suicide attempters (70 years and older) and a representative population sample.
Why it matters
This study compared social, psychological and psychiatric characteristics of elderly suicide attempters with a general population sample. It is about suicide risk in the elderly, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Functional and cognitive impairments were markedly higher for those who died aged 90 and older- predominantly women-than for those who died aged 85 to 89.
Why it matters
This study describes the physical and cognitive disabilities of very old people in the year before death, finding high levels of impairment in those who died aged 90 and older. It is about end-of-life function and support needs, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Individuals over 80 years of age represent the most rapidly growing segment of the population, and late-life dementia has become a major public health concern worldwide.
Why it matters
This paper discusses changing perspectives on late-life dementia and notes that developing effective preventive and treatment strategies depends on understanding all the processes involved. It reports no specific treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The concept of 'cognitive reserve', and a broader theory of 'brain reserve', were originally proposed to help explain epidemiological data indicating that individuals who engaged in higher levels of mental and physical activity via education, occupation and recreation, were at lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
Why it matters
This review describes animal studies showing that environmental enrichment and voluntary physical exercise can have significant effects on brain and behavior, informing the concepts of brain and cognitive reserve. The evidence comes mainly from animals such as mice and rats, so it does not establish that mental or physical activity prevents dementia in people.
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 Impact of Store-Based online Fulfilment on Grocery Retail Food Waste: An Empirical Analysis
- Causes of hospital admission for people with dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Cognitive Training in the Elderly: Bottlenecks and New Avenues
- Unrecognized myocardial infarction in relation to risk of dementia and cerebral small vessel disease
- Supporting Dementia Caregiving With a Mobile Care Ecosystem: Development and Mixed Methods Study
- Education differentially contributes to cognitive reserve across racial/ethnic groups
- The changing prevalence and incidence of dementia over time - current evidence
- A New Computer-Based Cognitive Measure for Early Detection of Dementia Risk (Japan Cognitive Function Test): Validation Study
- Physical and mental demands of work associated with dementia risk in later life
- Prevalence of sarcopenia as a comorbid disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis