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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Future interventions should address subjective fatigue when managing cognitive and functional abilities in community-dwelling older adults.
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The objective of this study was to examine exercise effects on global brain volume, hippocampal volume, and cortical thickness in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.
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Most cross-sectional and longitudinal studies suggest an association between cognitive impairment and CKD.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis of 54,779 participants found that people with chronic kidney disease had higher odds of cognitive decline than those without it. It suggests chronic kidney disease is a significant and independent risk factor for cognitive decline, but does not test any treatment or prevention.
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69/100
In the 1990 subcohort (25,696 person-years), 286 persons developed dementia, and in the 2000 subcohort (8,384 person-years), 49 persons.
Why it matters
Comparing two periods, dementia incidence was lower in the later group but the difference was not statistically significant. The study does not show that dementia incidence is declining or provide a treatment or prevention.
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Whether mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has a distinct neuropathological profile that reflects an intermediate state between no cognitive impairment and dementia is not clear.
Why it matters
This systematic review of 162 studies found that mild cognitive impairment is neuropathologically complex, involving plaque and tangle formation, vascular pathologies, inflammation, oxidative stress and other changes, and cannot be understood within a single framework. It identifies what still requires further research and offers no treatment, cure or prevention.
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69/100
A decision aid about feeding options in advanced dementia reduced decisional conflict for surrogates and increased their knowledge and communication about feeding options with providers.
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A rapidly growing literature strongly suggests that exercise, specifically aerobic exercise, may attenuate cognitive impairment and reduce dementia risk.
Why it matters
This review reports that meta-analyses of prospective studies found midlife exercise significantly reduced risk of dementia and later mild cognitive impairment, and that randomised controlled trials in patients with dementia or mild cognitive impairment documented better cognitive scores after 6 to 12 months of exercise. It also reports larger hippocampal volumes and better spatial memory with aerobic exercise in seniors, suggesting exercise may be a preventive or disease-modifying approach.
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The mean plasma total homocysteine was 30% lower in those treated with B vitamins relative to placebo.
Why it matters
In this two-year trial in people aged 70 or over with mild cognitive impairment, daily folic acid, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 left blood homocysteine 30% lower than placebo and stabilised executive function. There was also a significant benefit on global cognition among participants whose homocysteine started above the median. The authors call it a small trial in which B vitamins appear to slow decline, and say further trials are needed to see whether the treatment slows or prevents conversion from MCI to dementia.
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Whilst there is no conclusive evidence of the preoperative predictors for mortality following hip fractures, special attention should be paid to the above 12 strong evidence predictors.
Why it matters
This systematic review identified preoperative predictors of mortality after hip fracture surgery. It has no relevance to treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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ChEIs may increase the risk of syncope, with no effects on falls, fracture, or accidental injury in cognitively impaired older adults.
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Patients with osteoarthritis had excess all cause mortality compared with the general population (standardised mortality ratio 1.55, 95% confidence interval 1.41 to 1.70).
Why it matters
In this cohort, people with knee or hip osteoarthritis had higher death rates than the general population, including higher dementia-associated mortality. This is an observational link between osteoarthritis and mortality, not a treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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To determine incidence of dementia in type 2 diabetic (T2DM) patients, and whether there are adverse or favorable effects of oral agents (OA) in DM, we obtained a representative cohort of 800,000 from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance database.
Why it matters
In this cohort, type 2 diabetes more than doubled dementia risk, and use of sulfonylureas or metformin was associated with lower dementia risk compared with no medication. These are observational associations, so they do not prove that these diabetes drugs prevent dementia.
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69/100
Classification of evidence This study provides Class II evidence that specific dual-task training improves dual-task performance during walking under complex S3 conditions in geriatric patients with mild to moderate dementia.
Why it matters
In this randomized controlled trial of 61 patients with mild to moderate dementia, a specific dual-task exercise program significantly improved dual-task performance compared with low-intensity exercise. This addresses motor and attention performance, not curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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69/100
We conclude that there is evidence supporting the hypothesis that physical activity is likely to prevent the development of VaD, and should be highlighted as part of secondary prevention programmes in people at risk for cerebrovascular disease.
Why it matters
A meta-analysis of 5 studies found a significant association between physical exercise and a reduced risk of developing vascular dementia. The majority of the 24 individual longitudinal studies reviewed did not report significant associations on their own.
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These results indicate that in both healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia hippocampal volume is plastic in response to aerobic exercise.
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When zero inflation was taken into account, between-site differences in disability scores were largely attributable to compositional differences in health and sociodemographic characteristics.
Why it matters
In a 10/66 Dementia Research Group survey of older people in low- and middle-income countries, the authors report that "dementia, not blindness, is overwhelmingly the most important independent contributor to disability" — a population-level association, not proof of cause in any individual. Differences in disability between survey sites were "largely attributable to compositional differences in health and sociodemographic characteristics", and the authors call for chronic diseases of the brain and mind to receive "increased prioritisation" because they also bring dependency and long-term strain on carers.
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We have carried out a systematic review of the case files of 242 donors with pathologically verified Parkinson's disease at the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders in an attempt to corroborate the data-driven subtype classification proposed by Lewis and colleagues (Heterogeneity of Parkinson's disease in the early clinical stages using a data driven approach.
Why it matters
This study of Parkinson's disease subtypes found that a non-tremor dominant pattern was strongly associated with cognitive disability and more cortical Lewy bodies and amyloid-beta plaque load. It does not test any treatment or prevention for Alzheimer's disease, so it has no direct implications for treating, curing, or preventing the disease.
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Higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with slower MMSE cognitive decline but not consistently with other cognitive tests.
Why it matters
In this observational study of 1,410 adults aged 65 and over in Bordeaux, France, followed for up to 5 years, people who followed a Mediterranean-style diet more closely made slightly fewer errors over time on one of four memory and thinking tests (the MMSE). The diet was not linked to dementia risk (hazard ratio 1.12, 95% CI 0.60–2.10), but the authors note the study had limited power to detect a difference. Association is not causation, and the authors describe the cognitive results as "not consistently" seen across tests.
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The management of symptomatic orthostatic hypotension, autonomic symptoms and depression, and the encouragement of physical activity may provide the core elements for the most fruitful strategy to reduce falls in people with dementia.
Why it matters
This prospective study found that people with dementia fell far more often than controls, and that potentially modifiable predictors of falling included symptomatic orthostatic hypotension, autonomic symptoms, and depression scores. It is about preventing falls in people who already have dementia, not about treating or preventing dementia itself.
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These findings suggest that subtle elevation of CHD risk may negatively affect memory functioning even in otherwise healthy, non-demented older women without a history of heart disease.
Why it matters
In 375 non-demented older women with a family history of Alzheimer's disease, those with higher coronary heart disease risk had lower baseline memory scores. This is an observational association and does not show that reducing heart risk prevents Alzheimer's disease.
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Dementia is a key part of survival in Parkinson disease and must be planned for in services for this condition.
Why it matters
In this 12-year population study of people with Parkinson disease, 60% developed dementia by the end of the study, and the cumulative risk rose with age and duration of disease. Women lived with Parkinson disease longer than men and spent more years with dementia.
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The 10/66 DRG baseline population-based studies are nearly complete.
Why it matters
This paper describes the protocols for population-based studies of dementia in ten low- and middle-income countries, including a randomized trial of a caregiver intervention. It is about research methods and caregiving support, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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In this multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group clinical trial, 788 patients with probable VaD who also satisfied strict centrally read MRI criteria were randomized to receive galantamine or placebo.
Why it matters
This randomized trial gave galantamine or placebo to 788 patients with vascular dementia, a different condition from Alzheimer's disease. It tested effects on cognition, daily function, and behavior, but the provided findings do not report whether galantamine worked, so no conclusion about treating Alzheimer's disease can be drawn.
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It is associated with increases in mortality, physical morbidity, length of hospital stay, institutionalisation and costs to healthcare providers.
Why it matters
In six studies with 833 participants, interventions for preventing delirium in hospitalised patients did not show a significant reduction in delirium after adjusting for pre-fracture dementia and Activities of Daily Living impairment. There was also no significant difference in delirium incidence in a subgroup of 50 patients with dementia.
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Type 2 diabetes mellitus and cognitive impairment are 2 of the most common chronic conditions found in persons aged > or = 60 years.
Why it matters
This paper describes the design of a substudy within a larger diabetes trial, testing whether intensive versus standard blood sugar control affects the rate of cognitive decline and structural brain change in 2,977 patients with type 2 diabetes. It reports the rationale and methods only, so no results on treating or preventing Alzheimer's disease are available from this text.
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.
- Racial, ethnic and neighborhood socioeconomic differences in incidence of dementia: A regional retrospective cohort study
- Depression and dementia: cause, consequence or coincidence?
- Palliative care for people with dementia in the terminal phase: a mixed-methods qualitative study to inform service development
- Self-esteem, locus of control, hippocampal volume, and cortisol regulation in young and old adulthood
- Diabetes mellitus and risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia with stroke in a multiethnic cohort
- Validity and power of minimization algorithm in longitudinal analysis of clinical trials
- Reliability of the Washington University Road Test. A performance-based assessment for drivers with dementia of the Alzheimer type
- Type 2 Diabetes as a Risk Factor for Dementia in Women Compared With Men: A Pooled Analysis of 2.3 Million People Comprising More Than 100,000 Cases of Dementia
- Post-stroke cognitive decline: an update and perspectives for clinical research
- Cognitive feature evaluation for disease progression in dementia and its precursors using feature selection