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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61/100
In this diverse community-based cohort, cross-sectional data revealed significant race/ethnic disparities in the prevalence of MCI and dementia.
Why it matters
This cross-sectional study found that Hispanic and Black participants had a greater likelihood of mild cognitive impairment and dementia than white participants, and that white matter hyperintensity burden was associated with greater odds of mild cognitive impairment or dementia. It describes disparities and associations and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Ageing and a sedentary lifestyle are associated with declines in muscle function and cardiorespiratory fitness, resulting in an impaired capacity to perform daily activities and maintain independent functioning.
Why it matters
These expert guidelines state that structured exercise and overall physical activity help prevent many chronic diseases and improve mobility, mental health, and quality of life. They do not report any result specific to treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Of 9,033 ARIC participants with sufficient Medicare coverage data (4,980 [55.1%] female, 1993 [22.1%] Black), 671 met the definition of LOE.
Why it matters
This cohort study found that people who developed late-onset epilepsy had a substantially higher risk of later developing dementia. It identifies an association only and does not show that treating epilepsy would prevent dementia; further work is needed to explore the causes.
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61/100
There are specific high-risk preexisting comorbidities for COVID-19 hospitalization and related deaths in community-based older men and women.
Why it matters
This cohort study found that preexisting diagnoses including dementia were independent risk factors for COVID-19 hospitalization in older adults. It describes risk factors for COVID-19 and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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At baseline, participants (n = 168) were cognitively normal and primarily middle-aged (mean 56.4 years, SD 10.9 years) and had both vascular risk factor status and proximal CSF biomarkers available.
Why it matters
In 168 mostly middle-aged cognitively normal people, the study looked at whether vascular risk factors and Alzheimer biomarkers act separately or together on later cognitive decline. It is a cohort study, so it can show associations but cannot prove that treating vascular risk prevents Alzheimer's disease.
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These findings have implications for clinical practice and suggest that presence of a caregiver may be an important modifying variable on patient outcomes to examine in future research.
Why it matters
This study of 210 people with Parkinson's disease and atypical parkinsonisms found that those with a caregiver had greater motor difficulty, lower cognitive scores, and greater palliative needs, yet reported higher quality of life and less spiritual distress. It examined caregiver presence as a factor in patient outcomes rather than testing any treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
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Reducing the risk of dementia can halt the worldwide increase of affected people.
Why it matters
This paper describes a global network of multidomain lifestyle intervention trials for dementia risk reduction and prevention, launched in 2017 and including over 25 countries. It aims to adapt, test and optimize the FINGER model across different geographical, cultural and economic settings, from at-risk asymptomatic states to early symptomatic stages.
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This systematic review commissioned by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), considers how the evidence base for noise effects on health has changed following the recent reviews undertaken for the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines.
Why it matters
This systematic review found mostly low-quality evidence on environmental noise and health, with many conclusions from earlier WHO reviews unchanged and few studies for many outcomes. It does not provide evidence that noise causes or prevents dementia, and the authors call for more research.
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The number of studies examining ECHO and ECHO-like models of medical tele-education has been modest compared with the scope and scale of implementation throughout the USA and internationally.
Why it matters
This systematic review of Project ECHO tele-education models found favorable provider outcomes such as satisfaction, increased knowledge and increased clinical confidence, but the strength of evidence was low. It concerns medical education and healthcare delivery generally, not the treatment, cure or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
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We recruited 825 individuals from the CHARLS sample and 766 subjects from hospitals in six provinces and cities in China.
Why it matters
This study validated neurocognitive tests for a cognitive assessment protocol in China. It is about test validation, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Pooling data across 4 cohort studies, 814 cognitively normal participants (mean baseline age = 59.6 years) were classified into 8 ATN groups using baseline CSF levels of β-amyloid 1-42 as a measure of amyloid (A), phosphorylated tau 181 as a measure of tau (T), and total tau as a measure of neurodegeneration (N).
Why it matters
This cohort study pooled data from 814 cognitively normal people and grouped them by baseline CSF amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration markers to compare later cognitive trajectories. It is an observational study of how these markers relate to cognitive change over time, not a test of any treatment or prevention.
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A total of 3,162 cases of dementia occurred during the follow-up.
Why it matters
In this cohort of older adults in Japan, lower availability of food stores was associated with increased dementia incidence, and the association remained statistically significant after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, health status and other neighborhood factors. Because food shopping is a routine activity and a main motive for going out among older adults, increasing the availability of food stores may contribute to dementia prevention.
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Older Medicare beneficiaries in California with DS, especially those with dementia, have a high level of multimorbidity including several treatable conditions.
Why it matters
In one year (2015) of California Medicare claims, 353 of 878 adults aged 45+ with Down syndrome (40%) had a dementia diagnosis, rising to 49% among those 65 or older. Those with dementia averaged more other health conditions (3.4 vs 2.5), and four treatable ones (hypothyroidism, epilepsy, anemia and weight loss) were much more frequent in them. The authors conclude that adults with Down syndrome need "complex adult and geriatric care". The study only counts diagnoses at one point in time; it does not show what causes what or test any treatment.
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Misidentification of dementia in Medicare claims is common.
Why it matters
Medicare claims correctly identified only 51% of clinically diagnosed dementia cases, and total annual expenditures for beneficiaries with claims-identified dementia were $258,707 lower than for those clinically diagnosed. This concerns how dementia is recorded in claims and how that affects cost estimates, not treatment, cure, or prevention.
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MCI is highly prevalent in older adults with profound hearing loss.
Why it matters
This longitudinal study of 70 profoundly deaf older adults found that after cochlear implantation, most with mild cognitive impairment remained stable or returned to normal cognition, with a low rate of progression to dementia. It suggests a possible positive effect of hearing rehabilitation on cognition but does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Only higher red wine intake was associated with a lower incidence of AD ( HR = 0.92; P = 0.045).
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The Alzheimer center of the VU University Medical Center opened in 2000 and was initiated to combine both patient care and research.
Why it matters
This cohort profile describes almost 6,000 patients in the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort and summarizes research on early diagnosis, heterogeneity, and vascular factors. It reports on diagnostic measures and patient care rather than a treatment, cure, or prevention.
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However, in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) there is a lack of evaluation and the cross-cultural validity of SRH remains largely untested.
Why it matters
This study examined self-rated health and its association with mortality in older adults in China, India and Latin America. It found poor self-rated health predicted higher mortality, but it does not address Alzheimer's disease treatment, cure or prevention.
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We have reported, for the first time, the dose-response relationship between LTPA and dementia, further supporting the international PA guideline from the standpoint of dementia prevention.
Why it matters
Pooling prospective studies published 1995–2016, this meta-analysis found that more leisure-time physical activity went along with a steadily lower risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease, but not vascular dementia. Within the range studied (up to about 2000 kcal or 45 MET-hours a week), each extra 500 kcal or 10 MET-hours per week was linked to an average 10% lower risk of all-cause dementia and 13% lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. Because the studies were observational, this shows an association rather than proof that exercise prevents dementia, though the authors say it supports existing physical activity guidelines.
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61/100
Mean age was 73.5 years and mean HbA1c was 6.8%.
Why it matters
In US veterans aged 65 and older with diabetes, metformin use was associated with a lower risk of later dementia than sulfonylurea use in those under 75. The authors state that further work is needed to identify which patients may benefit from metformin for dementia prevention, so this does not yet establish metformin as a preventive treatment.
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Globally, low back pain, migraine, age-related and other hearing loss, iron-deficiency anaemia, and major depressive disorder were the five leading causes of YLDs in 2016, contributing 57·6 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 40·8-75·9 million [7·2%, 6·0-8·3]), 45·1 million (29·0-62·8 million [5·6%, 4·0-7·2]), 36·3 million (25·3-50·9 million [4·5%, 3·8-5·3]), 34·7 million (23·0-49·6 million [4·3%, 3·5-5·2]), and 34·1 million (23·5-46·0 million [4·2%, 3·2-5·3]) of total YLDs, respectively.
Why it matters
This global analysis reports on the burden of many diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and notes that these conditions contribute to higher years lived with disability in women. It provides descriptive statistics only and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Roughly one in five hospice patients were discharged alive (21%; n = 1911).
Why it matters
This study looked at hospice patients who were discharged alive rather than dying in hospice, and found that acute hospitalization was the most common reason. It does not test any treatment for Alzheimer's disease, so it offers no direct information about curing or preventing the disease.
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There was strong agreement regarding the definition of the core clinico-radiological syndrome, meaning that the current consensus statement should be regarded as a refinement, development, and extension of previous single-center PCA criteria rather than any wholesale alteration or redescription of the syndrome.
Why it matters
An international expert working party agreed a three-level way to classify posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). The levels cover the core syndrome, whether features of other neurodegenerative syndromes are also present, and the likely underlying cause based on biomarker evidence: Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body disease, corticobasal degeneration or prion disease. The aim was more uniform definitions so results can be compared across studies, including future trials. It is a consensus classification, not a test of any treatment.
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Our study demonstrates that MRI, a widespread imaging technology, can individually identify bvFTD with high accuracy in multi-center imaging data, paving the road to personalized diagnostic approaches in the future.
Why it matters
This study used structural MRI and machine learning to predict a diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, not Alzheimer's disease. It concerns diagnosis of a different dementia, so it does not directly inform treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's.
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At the First WHO Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia in March, 2015, 160 delegates, including representatives from 80 WHO Member States and four UN agencies, agreed on a call for action to reduce the global burden of dementia by fostering a collective effort to advance research.
Why it matters
After the 2015 WHO Ministerial Conference on dementia, researchers collected 863 research questions from 201 people, grouped them into 59 research areas, and had 162 researchers and stakeholders from 39 countries score them anonymously. Six of the top ten priorities were about preventing, identifying and reducing dementia risk, and about the delivery and quality of care for people with dementia and their carers. This is a ranking of which research to fund and do, not evidence that any prevention or care approach works.
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.
- Cerebral microvascular complications of type 2 diabetes: stroke, cognitive dysfunction, and depression
- Dementia and depression among the elderly living in the Hobart community: the effect of the diagnostic criteria on the prevalence rates
- Machine-learning-based COVID-19 mortality prediction model and identification of patients at low and high risk of dying
- Survival in dementia and predictors of mortality: a review
- Comparing three methods of computerised cognitive training for older adults with subclinical cognitive decline
- The utilization of physical therapy in a palliative care unit
- Sex differences in progression to mild cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease
- Neural deterioration and compensation in visual short‐term memory among individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment
- Diet and neurocognition: review of evidence and methodological considerations
- Executive function correlates with walking speed in older persons: the InCHIANTI study