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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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disorder mainly characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area, in combination with a varying loss of central noradrenergic (locus coeruleus), cholinergic (nucleus basalis of Meynert) and serotonergic (dorsal raphe nuclei) integrity, leading to a multitude of motor and non-motor behavioral disturbances.
Why it matters
This review states that in about 20-40% of Parkinson's disease patients, subtle early cognitive problems may eventually proceed to dementia, which is an important risk factor for caregiver distress, decreased quality of life, and nursing home placement. It notes that recent studies with the cholinesterase inhibitors galantamine, donepezil, and rivastigmine show promising results in improving cognition and ameliorating psychotic symptoms, which must be further confirmed in randomized controlled trials.
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Implicit memory, including priming, can be preserved in aging and dementia despite impairment of explicit memory.
Why it matters
In this fMRI study, older adults without dementia and those in early-stage Alzheimer's dementia showed priming effects and related prefrontal activity changes similar to young adults, suggesting these preserved abilities could be a target for cognitive training and rehabilitation. It is a small imaging study and does not show that such training actually treats, cures or prevents the disease.
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46/100
The high prevalence of injecting drug use among affected patients prompted some authors to conclude that concurrent heroin nephropathy, not HIV-1 infection per se, was responsible for this renal syndrome.
Why it matters
This article describes HIV-associated nephropathy, a kidney disease in people with HIV, and does not address Alzheimer's disease at all. It provides no information relevant to treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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46/100
Nursing home staff tended to perceive residents in more negative than positive ways.
Why it matters
This survey of 253 nursing home staff found that working with more cognitively impaired residents was associated with high levels of stress, and staff commonly perceived residents as anxious and unpredictable. It describes staff experiences and does not test any treatment or cure for Alzheimer's disease.
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We sought to investigate whether the seropositivity of common infections was associated with cognitive function.
Why it matters
This study looked at whether seropositivity for common viral and bacterial infections was related to cognitive status in 383 home-dwelling elderly people with cardiovascular diseases. It reports associations between infection markers and cognition, not a treatment, cure or prevention.
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S. lavandulaefolia Vahl. (Spanish sage) extracts and constituents have demonstrated anticholinesterase, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, oestrogenic and CNS depressant (sedative) effects all of which are currently relevant to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Why it matters
Spanish sage extracts and their components show several effects in the laboratory that are relevant to Alzheimer's disease, and a small open-label trial in patients found reduced neuropsychiatric symptoms and improved attention after 6 weeks. However, this was an open-label pilot study, so practice effects or rater and caregiver expectations cannot be ruled out, and it does not show whether the treatment changes the course of the disease.
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Although many studies have reported small to moderate statistically significant effects on a broad range of outcomes, only a small proportion of these studies achieved clinically meaningful outcomes.
Why it matters
A review of dementia caregiver intervention studies published 1996–2001 found that many reported "small to moderate statistically significant effects" but "only a small proportion" reached clinically meaningful outcomes. It still saw promise in delayed nursing-home placement, treatment of caregivers' major and minor depression, and services caregivers highly valued, and it urged researchers to measure whether effects are big enough to matter, not just statistically significant. It is about caregiver outcomes and does not show that any intervention treats or prevents Alzheimer's disease.
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Researchers in the aging field are paying increasing attention to the importance of perceived self-efficacy in understanding experiences and health-related outcomes of family caregivers.
Why it matters
In 197 family caregivers, higher symptom management self-efficacy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, and higher service use self-efficacy was also associated with better outcomes. The study describes measurement of caregiver self-efficacy and its associations, not a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
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To investigate the cognitive capacities of a cohort of ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke survivors and to identify the clinical determinants of post-stroke cognitive impairment, we evaluated 237 patients admitted to a Stroke Unit (mean age 59; SD=12.7).
Why it matters
Among 237 stroke survivors evaluated three months after stroke, 55% had disturbed performance in at least one cognitive domain and 6% had dementia. This describes how common cognitive problems are after stroke, but it does not test any treatment for preventing or curing dementia.
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Mean age was 74.5 years and 65.5% of them were illiterate.
Why it matters
This study developed and validated a Spanish version of the Pfeiffer questionnaire for detecting cognitive impairment in people over 65, recommending a cut-off of 3, or 4 for illiterate patients. It is a screening tool study and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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As elderly populations grow, dementia detection in the community is increasingly needed.
Why it matters
This study describes the development and scoring of the Mini-Cog, a brief dementia screen, and its accuracy with expert and naïve raters. It is about a screening test, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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This study estimated the prevalence of dementia in 2,285 new admissions age 65+ to a statewide sample of 59 nursing homes in Maryland, 1992-1995.
Why it matters
Among new nursing home admissions, about 48% had dementia, and the study suggests some residents with dementia may not need the level of medical supervision nursing homes provide. This is about how common dementia is in nursing homes and care needs, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Diabetes mellitus is associated with cognitive deficits and an increased risk of dementia, particularly in the elderly.
Why it matters
This review states that diabetes mellitus is associated with cognitive deficits and increased risk of dementia, and discusses possible molecular changes in animal models. It does not report a tested treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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46/100
A large number of older persons are living in the community with undetected dementia.
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SMC was associated with poorer objective memory performance even after controlling the effect of depression and demographic data, but SMC did not predict faster cognitive decline or dementia over 3 years.
Why it matters
People who reported trouble with their memory scored lower on cognitive tests and higher on depression symptoms, but having this complaint was not linked to faster cognitive decline over the past or following 3 years. This means subjective memory complaint alone did not predict faster decline in this population.
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The objective of this study was to examine the quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in a community-based sample (n = 228 patients) using a Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) as a measure.
Why it matters
This study examined quality of life in Parkinson's disease and its associations with variables including dementia. It does not test any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test for Children (RBMT-C) was used to assess a population-based sample of 74 people with Down syndrome (DS) aged 30 years and over (range 30-65 years) living in the Cambridge health district.
Why it matters
This study assessed whether a children's memory test could measure memory function in older adults with Down syndrome who are at risk for Alzheimer's disease. It found the test was usable for about two-thirds of the group and that memory differed between younger and older participants, but it does not test any treatment or cure.
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Risk of dementia by age 80 was more pronounced for Hispanic and black men compared with white men.
Why it matters
This study measured how common and how frequent dementia was among Black, White, and Hispanic municipal retirees, finding that risk of dementia by age 80 was more pronounced for Hispanic and Black men compared with White men. It provides information about who is affected but does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Dementia is an important cause of morbidity in the geriatric population in this community, where families take responsibility for the care of relatives with dementia.
Why it matters
In a rural community in Kerala, India, dementia prevalence was 31.9 per thousand among people aged 60 and above, with vascular dementia the most common subtype and smoking and hypertension noted as associated factors. This describes local prevalence and risk factors, not a treatment or cure.
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Cross-sectional correlational study of criterion-related validity.
Why it matters
This study compared Minimum Data Set Plus ratings of behavior, function, mood, communication and cognition with five other rating scales in nursing home residents. It is about the validity of assessment tools, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) provides ratings of an individual's changes in everyday cognitive functions during the previous 10 years.
Why it matters
This study tested the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly as a dementia screening tool in a predominantly illiterate Chinese population. It is about finding a screening method that is not affected by education, not about treatment, cure or prevention.
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Nonresponders in community surveys of the elderly appear to be disproportionately cognitively impaired.
Why it matters
This study examined what factors predicted who responded to a community survey of cognitive status in the elderly. It is about survey participation, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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In a neuropathological study of 81 brains of prospectively studied subjects of 80 years of age or older at the time of death, 13 cases (16%), including 4 men and 9 women, had hippocampal sclerosis (HpScl) affecting the vulnerable region of the hippocampus.
Why it matters
This neuropathological study found hippocampal sclerosis in 16% of brains from people aged 80 or older and in 26% of demented subjects in that age group. It describes a pathological feature and does not test any treatment or cure.
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The clinical details of 100 cases of histologically confirmed Parkinson's disease were examined and correlated with pathologic findings.
Why it matters
In 100 autopsy-confirmed Parkinson's cases, dementia occurred in 44%, with Alzheimer's disease found in 29% and no definite pathologic cause in 55%. This describes the overlap between Parkinson's and Alzheimer's pathology but tests no treatment or prevention.
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46/100
The Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist (RMBPC), a 24-item, caregiver-report measure of observable behavioral problems in dementia patients, provides 1 total score and 3 subscale scores for patient problems (memory-related, depression, and disruptive behaviors) and parallel scores for caregiver reaction.
Why it matters
This 1992 paper introduced the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist, a 24-item questionnaire in which a caregiver reports observable memory problems, depression and disruptive behaviour in a person with dementia, and separately rates how much each problem upsets the caregiver. In 201 older patients and their caregivers, the overall scores were internally consistent (α = .84 for patient behaviour, .90 for caregiver reaction; subscales .67–.89), and the authors report that scores matched established measures of depression, cognitive impairment and caregiver burden. It is a measurement tool for clinics and research, not a treatment, and its reliability figures do not cover consistency over time.
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.
- Context Matters in LLM-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis: Workflow Development and Multidimensional Evaluation in Health Research
- Use of lipid-lowering drugs in older adults with and without dementia: a community-based epidemiological study
- Medicare Advantage Beneficiary Enrollment Decisions Following New Complex Conditions
- Quality of dying and quality of end-of-life care of nursing home residents in six countries: An epidemiological study
- A prospective 20-year longitudinal follow-up of dementia in persons with Down syndrome
- MIND diet and the risk of dementia: a population-based study
- Prevalence, presentation and prognosis of delirium in older people in the population, at home and in long term care: a review
- Risk Factors for Young-Onset Dementia in the UK Biobank
- Planning for an uncertain future in progressive neurological disease: a qualitative study of patient and family decision-making with a focus on eating and drinking
- Associations of Neighborhood Walkability with Cognitive Impairment Depend on Geographic Context