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 Health Utilities Index (HUI) is a recently developed system for measuring the overall health status and health-related quality of life (HRQL) of individuals, clinical groups, and general populations.
Why it matters
Using the Health Utilities Index, this study found that chronic conditions including arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure, cataracts and diabetes were associated with poor health-related quality of life. Alzheimer's disease is not among the conditions highlighted, and the study concerns measuring health burden rather than treating, curing or preventing dementia.
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More than 20 syndromes among the significant and increasing number of degenerative diseases of neuronal tissues are known to be associated with diabetes mellitus, increased insulin resistance and obesity, disturbed insulin sensitivity, and excessive or impaired insulin secretion.
Why it matters
This review lists many degenerative nerve diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, that are associated with diabetes and problems with insulin. It suggests these conditions may relate to altered energy metabolism in mitochondria, but it does not report a treatment or cure.
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The presence of cognitive impairment in corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is now widely recognised.
Why it matters
This review describes the cognitive features of corticobasal degeneration, including limb apraxia, visuospatial and frontal difficulties, and nonfluent aphasia, and notes that episodic memory problems tend to be milder than in Alzheimer's disease. It calls for more systematic study of the overlap between progressive nonfluent aphasia and corticobasal degeneration, and does not report any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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42/100
Patients were enrolled in a prospective study on early cognitive impairment carried out in a Memory Clinic.
Why it matters
This study described 29 patients with mild cognitive impairment thought to be caused by blood vessel problems in the brain, comparing them with 14 patients whose impairment had a degenerative cause. It aimed to define this vascular type of mild cognitive impairment and describe how it progresses, which could help identify it earlier.
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Significant differences emerged between spouse and adult-child caregiver groups as a whole and as a function of Clinical Dementia Rating impairment level.
Why it matters
This study describes a model of anticipatory grief in dementia caregiving and found that this grief is real and equivalent in intensity and breadth to death-related grief. It is about the caregiver experience and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Ninety-five percent of the patients with dementia were reported to have at least one agitated behavior; 75% had at least one moderately disruptive behavior.
Why it matters
Among patients with dementia in long-term-care beds at an acute care hospital, 95% had at least one agitated behavior and 75% had at least one moderately disruptive behavior. These behaviors were associated with staff burden, and their frequency mostly did not differ by shift.
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Dementias, such as Alzheimer's disease, include a progressive deterioration of language functioning.
Why it matters
In 20 participants, music therapy significantly improved speech content and fluency on a spontaneous speech scale compared with conversational sessions, but the difference in overall Aphasia Quotient did not reach statistical significance. This small study addresses language functioning in dementia, not treating, curing, or preventing the underlying disease.
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Follow-up clinical examinations of dementia patients from a population-based study after 3- and 7-year intervals.
Why it matters
This population-based study followed 133 cases of Alzheimer's disease, 52 of vascular dementia and 38 of other dementias in Stockholm over 3 and 7 years to find factors predicting survival and progression. It is about prognosis, not about treating, curing or preventing the disease.
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Retrospective analysis of clock drawing performance using three published scoring methods (Shulman, Sunderland and Wolf-Klein).
Why it matters
This study compared three scoring methods for the Clock Drawing Test in 28 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and 28 matched controls. It is a screening-test comparison and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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The relationship between the presence and severity of AIDS dementia complex (ADC) and the levels of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were assessed.
Why it matters
In 19 patients with AIDS dementia complex, higher HIV-1 RNA levels in cerebrospinal fluid were significantly related to more severe dementia, while plasma levels were not. However, cerebrospinal fluid levels can also be raised by central nervous system infections such as cryptococcal meningitis, so the measure is not specific.
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Stroke patients are more likely to develop dementia than age- and sex-matched controls but the pathogenesis of dementia remains unresolved in most of them.
Why it matters
This review proposes three factors that may explain dementia after stroke: direct vascular lesions, associated asymptomatic Alzheimer pathology, and white matter changes. It is a review of possible causes and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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42/100
Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to investigate volumes of different brain structures in 19 patients with late-onset major depression (DSM-III-R), 27 patients with Alzheimer's disease (NINCDS-ADRDA criteria) and 13 age matched controls. 3-D MRI sequences were acquired using a Siemens 1.5 T scanner.
Why it matters
This small MRI study found that patients with late-onset major depression had lower whole brain volume and higher cerebrospinal fluid volume than controls, but their frontal, temporal and amygdala-hippocampus volumes were not significantly reduced, unlike Alzheimer's disease patients whose volumes were lower on all measures. It is a comparison of brain structure in two conditions and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention.
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In the study by Derogatis et al., which included patients with all stages of cancer, 47% of the patients met the DSM-III criteria for a psychiatric disorder, with adjustment disorders being the most common.
Why it matters
This study assessed psychiatric disorders in 93 terminally ill cancer patients using the Mini-Mental State Examination and a structured interview. It is about psychiatric illness in cancer patients and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Impairment in instrumental activities of daily living appears to be a relatively independent dimension of health status that is related to depressive symptoms, particularly anxiety and depressive ideation as well as retardation and weight loss.
Why it matters
In 75 elderly depressed patients with cognitive function ranging from normal to mild dementia, impairment in instrumental activities of daily living was linked to advanced age, depression severity, and medical burden. This concerns disability in geriatric depression and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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In both Alzheimer and vascular dementia subtypes, the prevalence rates did not differ between men and women, but increased with age and were higher in subjects with a low level of education.
Why it matters
In this rural Italian population, dementia prevalence increased with age and was higher in people with less than three years of schooling, even after adjusting for age and sex. This identifies low education as a risk marker for dementia but does not test any treatment or prevention.
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The extent and consequences of medical comorbidity in patients with schizophrenia are generally underrecognized.
Why it matters
This review discusses medical comorbidity in schizophrenia, including physical illnesses, substance use, cognitive impairment, sensory deficits and iatrogenic comorbidity. It concerns schizophrenia and does not show any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) as a screening test for dementia in an elderly Swedish population.
Why it matters
When everyone over 74 in one Stockholm area took the Mini-Mental Status Examination, a score at or below 23/24 picked up 87% of the people clinicians diagnosed with dementia and correctly cleared 92% of those without it. But only 69% of people who scored low actually had dementia, so a low score is a reason for a full clinical assessment, not a diagnosis. Age, sex and education changed these results only slightly, though this was one older Swedish community and the figures may differ elsewhere.
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The conventional distinction between schizophrenia and manic depression has received little objective support from recent studies of phenomenology, outcome, or familial homotypy.
Why it matters
This paper proposes that one form of schizophrenia may result from aberrant brain development during fetal and neonatal life. It is about schizophrenia, not Alzheimer's disease, and does not report a treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome (PS) is reasonably easy in most cases but the distinction between different variants of PS may be difficult in early cases.
Why it matters
This autopsy study found that the clinical diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson's disease was confirmed in 76% of cases and could not be distinguished from some other conditions. It is about diagnostic accuracy, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) exists in both short and long forms.
Why it matters
This study compared two versions of a depression screening scale and found the short version did not appear to retain its validity in people with mild dementia of the Alzheimer type. It concerns screening for depression, not treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The Mini-Mental State Examination was administered to 1865 general-practice patients aged 75 years and over.
Why it matters
This study found that among 1865 general-practice patients aged 75 and over, those with less education and lower social class were more likely to score below a Mini-Mental State Examination cut-off, even after removing dementia cases. It shows that education and social class affect test scores and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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The high prevalence of mental disorders such as depression and dementia in institutionalized elderly patients warrants screening for psychiatric diagnosis in patients newly admitted to long-term care facilities.
Why it matters
This study evaluated the accuracy of the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Geriatric Depression Scale for screening dementia and depression in newly admitted long-term care patients. It is about screening tools, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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While providing home care for a family member with senile dementia is clearly extremely stressful, there has been little controlled research assessing the specific effects of this stress on caregiver psychological, social, and health functioning.
Why it matters
This study found that people caring for a relative with dementia had significantly more depression, lower life satisfaction, less social activity, and poorer health than matched controls. It does not test any treatment or cure for Alzheimer's disease; it shows the wide-ranging effects of caregiving stress and supports providing services to caregiving families.
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Among 2,435,099 weighted hospitalizations, palliative care documentation was present in 65,675 (2.70%), increasing from 2.13% in 2016 to 3.43% in 2022.
Why it matters
This cross-sectional analysis of gastrointestinal bleeding hospitalizations found palliative care documentation was uncommon and concentrated in higher-acuity hospitalizations, with dementia among associated factors. The authors note patterns are associations rather than effects and require validation in clinically richer data.
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Loneliness moderated the relationship between national ADI scores and short-term visuospatial memory.
Why it matters
In older adults around New Castle County, Delaware, greater neighborhood disadvantage was linked to worse short-term visuospatial memory. Loneliness changed the strength of the link between national disadvantage scores and this memory measure.
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.
- Ethics of disclosure of onset‐predictive biomarker test results for genetic frontotemporal dementia in the research context
- Association of New Use of Antihypertensives That Stimulate vs Inhibit Type 2 and 4 Angiotensin II Receptors With Dementia Among Medicare Beneficiaries
- Cardiovascular risk and memory in non-demented elderly women
- Association of lung function with cognitive decline and dementia: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study
- Cognitive test performance in a community-based nondemented elderly sample in rural India: the Indo-U.S. Cross-National Dementia Epidemiology Study
- Impact of white matter hyperintensity volume progression on rate of cognitive and motor decline
- Prediction of 6-month survival of nursing home residents with advanced dementia using ADEPT vs hospice eligibility guidelines
- Advanced dementia research in the nursing home: the CASCADE study
- The meaning of “total pain” in the context of living and dying with dementia
- Reduced employment in caregivers of frail elders: impact of ethnicity, patient clinical characteristics, and caregiver characteristics