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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Scale of benefit is comparable with in-person training, indicating its potential as a public health intervention.
Why it matters
In this online randomised trial of over 2,900 adults older than 60, general and reasoning cognitive training packages improved activities of daily living and cognition, with the reasoning package showing the most benefit. The authors say the size of benefit is comparable with in-person training and could be a public health option, but the trial measured cognition and function rather than whether dementia was prevented.
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Besides the MMSE, there are many other tests with comparable diagnostic performance for detecting dementia.
Why it matters
This review compared 11 cognitive screening tests across 149 studies with more than 49,000 participants for detecting dementia. It concerns diagnosis only and provides no information on treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Non-Hispanic white and NHB Health and Retirement Study (HRS) participants provided genetic information and either a composite memory score (n = 10,401) or a dementia probability score (n = 7690).
Why it matters
This study tested whether a genetic risk score for Alzheimer's disease predicted dementia and memory in black and white participants. It found that the genetic score had different relative effects in the two groups, but it does not provide a treatment or cure.
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70/100
Tai Chi shows potential to enhance cognitive function in older adults, particularly in the realm of executive functioning and in individuals without significant impairment.
Why it matters
In this meta-analysis, Tai Chi showed a large effect size on executive function in cognitively healthy adults compared with nonintervention controls and a moderate effect size compared with exercise controls. Effects on global cognitive function in cognitively impaired adults were smaller but statistically significant, though overall quality of the randomized trials was modest.
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70/100
Cost-effective strategies to maintain healthy active lifestyle in aging populations are required to address the global burden of age-related diseases.
Why it matters
ASPREE is a randomized, placebo-controlled trial testing whether daily low-dose aspirin extends 'disability-free life', a composite that includes onset of dementia, in healthy older adults. This paper reports the study design only, so no results on whether aspirin prevents dementia are available here.
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The association of depression with prevalent MCI and with progression from MCI to dementia, but not with incident MCI, suggests that depression accompanies cognitive impairment but does not precede it.
Why it matters
In a multiethnic community cohort, baseline depression was associated with a higher risk of incident dementia but not incident mild cognitive impairment, and people with both mild cognitive impairment and depression had a higher risk of progressing to dementia, especially vascular dementia but not Alzheimer's disease. This identifies depression as a risk marker, but it does not show that treating depression prevents or cures Alzheimer's disease.
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70/100
Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) is associated with cholinergic deficits.
Why it matters
This randomized, double-blind study gave donepezil at 5 or 10 mg or placebo to 550 patients with Parkinson's disease dementia for 24 weeks. It tests a treatment for Parkinson's disease dementia, not Alzheimer's disease, and the provided findings do not report whether donepezil worked.
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Cybercycling older adults achieved better cognitive function than traditional exercisers, for the same effort, suggesting that simultaneous cognitive and physical exercise has greater potential for preventing cognitive decline.
Why it matters
In this cluster randomized trial of 102 older adults, cybercycling produced a significant improvement in composite executive function and a significant increase in BDNF compared with traditional exercise. The trial was small and short (3 months), so it suggests a possible cognitive benefit of virtual reality-enhanced exercise but does not show prevention or cure of Alzheimer's disease.
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The current study suggests that the degree of HPA hyperactivity can vary considerably across patient groups.
Why it matters
This analysis of 361 studies found that depressed people tended to have higher cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone levels, but not higher corticotropin-releasing hormone. It does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Donepezil and antidepressant therapy temporarily improved global cognition (treatment × time interaction, F₂,₂₁₆ = 3.78; P = .03), but effect sizes were small (Cohen d = 0.27, group difference at 1 year).
Why it matters
Donepezil plus antidepressant therapy temporarily improved global cognition in older adults with depression, but the effect sizes were small. In a post hoc subgroup of 57 participants with mild cognitive impairment, fewer on donepezil converted to dementia than on placebo, but this was a secondary analysis of a small group and needs confirmation.
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Increasing crystallised intelligence and fruit and vegetable consumption and eliminating depression and diabetes are likely to have the biggest impact on reducing the incidence of dementia, outweighing even the effect of removing the principal known genetic risk factor.
Why it matters
This cohort study estimated that eliminating depression and diabetes, and increasing crystallised intelligence and fruit and vegetable consumption, would reduce dementia incidence more than removing the apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele. The authors note that causal relations cannot be concluded with certainty, so these findings suggest public health priorities rather than proven prevention.
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Our findings support the hypothesis that depression is a risk factor for dementia and suggest that recurrent depression is particularly pernicious.
Why it matters
In this longitudinal study, a monotonic increase in risk for all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease was observed as a function of the number of episodes of elevated depressive symptoms, with each episode associated with a 14% increase in risk. Recurrence of elevated depressive symptoms did not increase the risk of incident mild cognitive impairment.
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Individual statins were not significantly associated with risk of Parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, venous thromboembolism, dementia, osteoporotic fracture, gastric cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, renal cancer, breast cancer, or prostate cancer.
Why it matters
This large cohort study found that individual statins were not significantly associated with risk of dementia, among other conditions. Statin use was associated with increased risks of moderate or serious liver dysfunction, acute renal failure, moderate or serious myopathy, and cataract.
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High blood pressure increases the risks of stroke, dementia, and neurocognitive dysfunction.
Why it matters
In this 4-month randomized trial, people with high blood pressure who combined the DASH diet with a behavioral weight management program including exercise and calorie restriction showed greater improvements in executive function-memory-learning and psychomotor speed than a usual diet control group. This suggests that diet, exercise, and weight loss together may help protect thinking skills in people with high blood pressure, though the study did not test whether this prevents dementia.
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70/100
We have demonstrated that three baseline measures, namely, age >or=72 years, semantic fluency less than 20 words in 90 s and inability to copy an intersecting pentagons figure, are significant predictors of dementia risk, thus validating our previous findings.
Why it matters
In this five-year follow-up of people with Parkinson's disease, three things measured at the start predicted who later developed dementia: being 72 or older, naming fewer than 20 words in a 90-second word-category test, and being unable to copy a drawing of intersecting pentagons. A variant of the tau gene (MAPT H1/H1) also predicted dementia, with an odds ratio of 12.1, while difficulties on planning-type "frontal" tasks did not and, the authors suggest, follow a separate course with a "better prognosis". These are risk markers from one group of patients, not a diagnostic test, and the study tested no treatment or prevention.
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Early identification of patterns of abnormality is of fundamental importance for detecting disease onset and tracking progression.
Why it matters
In this longitudinal study, all brain volumes declined with normal aging, but mild cognitive impairment was associated with a distinct pattern of greater volume loss in specific regions. This suggests imaging can help distinguish MCI from normal aging, but it is an observational finding with no treatment tested.
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Hormone replacement therapy increases cardiovascular and thromboembolic risk when started many years after the menopause.
Why it matters
This trial of hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women was stopped early during recruitment, after a median follow-up of only 11.9 months, so it could not assess long-term effects on dementia. No conclusion about hormone therapy for preventing or treating Alzheimer's disease can be drawn from it.
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70/100
The authors assessed the association of smoking with dementia and cognitive decline in a meta-analysis of 19 prospective studies with at least 12 months of follow-up.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis of 19 prospective studies found that current smokers had higher risks of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and any dementia, and greater yearly declines in Mini-Mental State Examination scores, compared with never smokers. It identifies smoking as a risk factor, not a treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Quetiapine was well-tolerated and did not worsen parkinsonism.
Why it matters
In this small trial, quetiapine did not show significant benefit for agitation or psychosis in patients with dementia and parkinsonism, though it was generally well tolerated and did not worsen parkinsonism. The authors note the trial had limitations including a large placebo effect and inadequate dosage.
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Elderly people taking anticholinergic drugs had significant deficits in cognitive functioning and were highly likely to be classified as mildly cognitively impaired, although not at increased risk for dementia.
Why it matters
Elderly people taking anticholinergic drugs were more likely to be classified as having mild cognitive impairment but were not at increased risk of developing dementia after eight years. This suggests the cognitive effects of these drugs did not lead to dementia in this cohort.
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High cholesterol in late life was associated with decreased dementia risk, which is in contrast to previous studies suggesting high cholesterol in mid-life is a risk factor for later dementia.
Why it matters
In this birth cohort followed to age 88, higher total cholesterol levels in late life were associated with a reduced risk of dementia, while triglyceride levels showed no association. This observational finding does not mean high cholesterol is protective or that raising cholesterol prevents dementia, and it contrasts with cholesterol's known cardiovascular risks.
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In this population, among those who progressed to dementia, 60% progressed to AD and 33% to VaD.
Why it matters
In an Italian population study of 2,963 people aged 65–84 followed for about 3.5 years, new cases of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) appeared at 21.5 per 1,000 person-years. People with MCI progressed to dementia at 3.8 per 100 person-years, and 60% of those who progressed developed Alzheimer's disease and 33% vascular dementia. Older age and lower education were linked to MCI, but the vascular factors in the title showed only nonsignificant trends (cholesterol, stroke), so the study does not show that vascular risk factors cause MCI or that treating them would help.
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The of establishing the diagnosis of pneumonia and cause is with the antibiotic studies for of community-acquired studies for of community-acquired The diagnosis of is based on a of clinical and laboratory The diagnosis of is and and as well as disease, congestive heart failure, with pneumonia and cases of and are of do not require and are the of antibiotic antimicrobial is usually for and a chest radiography is usually to establish the diagnosis of examination to or is for detecting pneumonia Chest radiography is considered is for the etiologic the and or conditions.
Why it matters
These are practice guidelines for managing community-acquired pneumonia in adults. They are not about Alzheimer's disease and do not test any treatment, cure or prevention for it.
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70/100
Low-dose risperidone (mean 1.1 mg/d) was well tolerated and associated with reductions in the severity and frequency of behavioral symptoms, particularly aggression, in elderly patients with dementia.
Why it matters
In this 13-week double-blind trial of 344 people with dementia, low-dose risperidone (mean 1.1 mg/d) produced significantly greater reductions than placebo on aggression scores (BEHAVE-AD and CMAI aggression clusters) and on clinician-rated global impression (CGI), but the share of patients reaching a ≥30% improvement in overall behavioural symptoms was not significantly higher than with placebo. Movement-related side effects with risperidone did not differ significantly from placebo and were lower than with haloperidol; an advantage over haloperidol on aggression came only from a post hoc analysis. The trial treated behavioural symptoms over 13 weeks and does not show any effect on Alzheimer's disease itself.
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Patients who meet the criteria for MCI can be differentiated from healthy control subjects and those with very mild AD.
Why it matters
In 76 people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at one Mayo Clinic registry, memory was the main difference from 234 healthy people; their other thinking skills were comparable. Their memory was similar to that of 106 people with mild Alzheimer's disease, but the Alzheimer's group was also worse in other areas. Over time the MCI group declined faster than healthy people but more slowly than the Alzheimer's group. This is an observational study: it gives no conversion rate and tests no treatment.
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.
- Air Pollution and Noncommunicable Diseases: A Review by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies' Environmental Committee, Part 2: Air Pollution and Organ Systems
- Retracted: Internet-Based Supportive Interventions for Family Caregivers of People With Dementia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- Advance care planning information intervention for persons with mild dementia and their family caregivers: Impact on end-of-life care decision conflicts
- Integrated care organizations: Medicare financing for care at home
- Survival of outpatients with Alzheimer-type dementia
- Trajectory of white matter hyperintensity burden preceding mild cognitive impairment
- Continuous CSF drainage in AD: results of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study
- Longitudinal MRI study of hippocampal volume in trauma survivors with PTSD
- Functional recovery after hip fracture: the combined effects of depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and delirium
- Sum of boxes of the clinical dementia rating scale highly predicts conversion or reversion in predementia stages