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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Although bright light therapy seems a promising treatment for sleep problems, research shows inconclusive results.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis of 53 studies found light therapy effective for sleep problems in general, including sleep problems related to Alzheimer's disease and dementia. It addresses sleep problems only and does not show any effect on treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease itself.
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In total, 1,234 articles were identified from the search; 21 articles met inclusion criteria.
Why it matters
This review of dementia risk prediction models found no single model that can be recommended for predicting dementia risk in the general population. It is about tools for estimating risk, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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A large proportion of the Medicare PD population resides in an LTCF.
Why it matters
Among Medicare beneficiaries with Parkinson's disease, about a quarter lived in a nursing home, and dementia and hip fracture were the strongest predictors of nursing home placement. This is about long-term care and end-of-life use, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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High-level evidence related to pharmacological strategies for managing Lewy body dementia is rare.
Why it matters
This review and meta-analysis found that donepezil and rivastigmine helped cognitive and psychiatric symptoms in Lewy body dementia, that rivastigmine carried a greater risk of adverse events, and that memantine was well tolerated but with few benefits. These findings are about managing symptoms of Lewy body dementia, not about curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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66/100
Our cohort of 1,958,191 people from UK general practices had a median age at baseline of 55 years (IQR 45-66) and a median follow-up of 9·1 years (IQR 6·3-12·6).
Why it matters
In nearly 2 million UK adults aged 40 or older, followed for a median of 9 years (45,507 dementia cases), people who were underweight in middle and old age had a higher rate of dementia than people of a healthy weight, and people with higher BMI had a lower rate. The authors say this "contradict[s] the hypothesis that obesity in middle age could increase the risk of dementia in old age". They also say the reasons "need further investigation". These are associations from health records, not evidence that changing your weight changes your dementia risk.
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The present study investigates whether a combined cognitive and physical training may induce changes in the cortical activity as measured via electroencephalogram (EEG) and whether this change may index a deceleration of pathological processes of brain aging.
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Community-based palliative care of people who die with or of dementia is relatively infrequent but associated with significant reductions in hospital emergency department use in the last year of life.
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Diabetes increased the risk of conversion to dementia.
Why it matters
This review pooled longitudinal studies of people already diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (76 eligible articles) to find risk factors for dementia that might be changed. Diabetes was linked to higher risk of progressing to dementia, and prediabetes, metabolic syndrome, neuropsychiatric symptoms and low folate also predicted progression; following a Mediterranean diet was linked to lower risk of progressing to Alzheimer's dementia, while less formal education did not predict progression. These are associations, not proof: the authors say only that diet changes and treating symptoms such as depression "may" reduce new dementia, and that treated diabetes carried lower risk than untreated diabetes in a single study.
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The majority of residents were stable in their care dependency status over two subsequent 6-month periods.
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The construct of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has evolved over the past 10 years since the publication of the new MCI definition at the Key Symposium in 2003, but the core criteria have remained unchanged.
Why it matters
This review looks back on mild cognitive impairment, the "grey area between intact cognitive functioning and clinical dementia," a decade after its 2003 definition, and notes that the core criteria have not changed. It argues that conflicting results between MCI studies are mostly explained by how the criteria are applied, in what setting, to which people and for how long. It lists classification, the reliability of clinical judgement and the predictive value of biomarkers as still unresolved. It reports no new data and no treatment, cure or prevention.
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The impact of Parkinson's disease (PD) dementia is substantial and has major functional and socioeconomic consequences.
Why it matters
This longitudinal study used the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Mini-Mental State Examination and fluency tests in 486 patients with early Parkinson's disease to look for predictors of cognitive impairment. It is about predicting cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Higher visit-to-visit variability in blood pressure independent of average blood pressure was associated with impaired cognitive function in old age.
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The pathologic indices of Alzheimer disease, cerebrovascular disease, and Lewy body disease accumulate in the brains of older persons with and without dementia, but the extent to which they account for late life cognitive decline remains unknown.
Why it matters
Researchers followed 856 older people from the Rush Memory and Aging Project and Religious Orders Study, testing their thinking about once a year (mean 7.5 visits, 17 tests). After death they measured Alzheimer changes (amyloid and tangles), strokes and microinfarcts, and Lewy bodies in their brains. The study set out to test whether these brain changes explain the majority of late-life cognitive decline, and its title reports that much of the decline is not due to them. This study does not identify the remaining causes and does not test any treatment.
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Published studies suggest that greater adherence to Mediterranean diet is associated with slower cognitive decline and lower risk of developing Alzheimer disease.
Why it matters
Across 12 papers describing seven groups of people, higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet was linked to better cognitive function, lower rates of cognitive decline, and reduced risk of Alzheimer disease in nine of the 12 studies. Results for mild cognitive impairment were inconsistent, and the studies had differing methods and limited statistical power in some cases.
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66/100
Our results support the notion that antihypertensive treatment has beneficial effects on cognitive decline and prevention of dementia, and indicate that these effects may differ between drug classes with ARBs possibly being the most effective.
Why it matters
When randomized trials and observational studies were combined, antihypertensive treatment reduced the risk of all-cause dementia by 9%, but this result was not significant when randomized trials alone were analyzed. Angiotensin II receptor blockers showed larger benefits than placebo on overall cognition, though the review notes inconsistent results in this field.
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Potentially modifiable factors consistently associated with increased likelihood of weight loss, low BMI, or poor nutrition included depression, impaired function, and poor oral intake.
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Using a nationally representative survey of older Americans with in-home cognitive testing, researchers estimated that dementia cost the US between $157 billion and $215 billion in 2010, depending on how unpaid family caregiving time is valued.
Why it matters
Dementia cost the US between $157 billion and $215 billion in 2010, making it more expensive nationally than heart disease or cancer. Nursing home care and paid or unpaid home care together made up 75-84% of the total cost.
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SMI and EMCI with self-reported concerns were associated with the same risk of AD dementia, suggesting that pre-LMCI risk conditions should be extended to SMI with concerns.
Why it matters
This cohort study found that risk of Alzheimer's disease dementia was greatest in late mild cognitive impairment, and that subjective memory impairment and early mild cognitive impairment with self-reported concerns were associated with a similarly increased risk. In subgroups without concerns, subjective memory impairment was not associated with increased risk, but early mild cognitive impairment remained an at-risk condition.
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This paper provides a concise but comprehensive review of research on religion/spirituality (R/S) and both mental health and physical health.
Why it matters
This systematic review examined research on religion/spirituality and health, including relationships with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. It is a broad review and does not report a treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The frequent association of chronic traumatic encephalopathy with other neurodegenerative disorders suggests that repetitive brain trauma and hyperphosphorylated tau protein deposition promote the accumulation of other abnormally aggregated proteins including TAR DNA-binding protein 43, amyloid beta protein and alpha-synuclein.
Why it matters
In this 2013 paper, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the brain disease linked to repetitive head trauma, was frequently found alongside other neurodegenerative disorders. From that association, the authors suggest that repeated brain trauma and tau deposits may promote the build-up of other abnormal proteins: TDP-43, amyloid beta and alpha-synuclein. This is a proposed explanation drawn from co-occurrence, not a proven cause, and our record includes no methods, sample size or numbers to judge it by.
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Zolpidem use was a strong, independent, and potentially modifiable risk factor for inpatient falls.
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Among well-functioning older adults, DM and poor glucose control among those with DM are associated with worse cognitive function and greater decline.
Why it matters
In this cohort of 3069 older adults without dementia, those with diabetes had lower baseline test scores and greater 9-year cognitive decline than those without diabetes. This shows an association between diabetes and cognitive decline, not that treating diabetes prevents Alzheimer's disease.
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We found significant independent associations with overall fracture risk in women for age, body mass index, ethnic origin, alcohol intake, smoking status, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, any cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, diagnosis or treatment for epilepsy, history of falls, chronic liver disease, Parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus, chronic renal disease, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, previous fracture, endocrine disorders, gastrointestinal malabsorption, any antidepressants, corticosteroids, unopposed hormone replacement therapy, and parental history of osteoporosis.
Why it matters
This study developed and validated an algorithm to predict osteoporotic fracture risk in primary care, and found dementia to be among the factors independently associated with overall fracture risk in women. It is about fracture prediction and does not address treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Pre-existing dementia is not independently associated with mortality, disability, or institutionalization after ischemic stroke.
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A higher level of total daily physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of AD.
Why it matters
Instead of relying on what people said about their habits, this study recorded "total daily exercise and nonexercise physical activity" with a movement-recording device for up to 10 days in 716 older adults without dementia, then followed them for about 4 years, during which 71 developed Alzheimer's disease. Higher total daily activity was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's (hazard ratio 0.477, 95% confidence interval 0.273–0.832) and with the rate of cognitive decline, and the link with Alzheimer's remained after adjusting for factors including motor function, depressive symptoms, chronic health conditions and APOE status. This was an observational study, so it shows an association and cannot prove that being more active prevents Alzheimer's.
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.
- Deprescribing benzodiazepines
- Sensory impairment and dementia risk among older adults in rural South Africa
- Association of Adherence to a MIND-Style Diet With the Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Decline in the REGARDS Cohort
- Quantifying the risk of neurodegenerative disease in idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder
- Diagnostic accuracy of mini-mental status examination and revised hasegawa dementia scale for Alzheimer's disease
- Prevention of cognitive decline in subjective cognitive decline APOE ε4 carriers after EGCG and a multimodal intervention (PENSA): Study design
- Concordance Between Proxy Level of Care Preference and Advance Directives Among Nursing Home Residents With Advanced Dementia: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial
- Neural network disruptions between default mode network and salience network in mild cognitive impairment with neuropsychiatric symptoms
- Social representation and practices related to dementia in Hai District of Tanzania
- Comprehensive Strategies for Metabolic Syndrome: How Nutrition, Dietary Polyphenols, Physical Activity, and Lifestyle Modifications Address Diabesity, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Neurodegenerative Conditions