Skip to main content
Advertisement
  • Neurology.org
  • Journals
    • Neurology
    • Clinical Practice
    • Education
    • Genetics
    • Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
  • Online Sections
    • Neurology Video Journal Club
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)
    • Neurology: Clinical Practice Accelerator
    • Practice Buzz
    • Practice Current
    • Residents & Fellows
    • Without Borders
  • Collections
    • COVID-19
    • Disputes & Debates
    • Health Disparities
    • Infographics
    • Neurology Future Forecasting Series
    • Null Hypothesis
    • Patient Pages
    • Topics A-Z
    • Translations
    • UDDA Revision Series
  • Podcast
  • CME
  • About
    • About the Journals
    • Contact Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Authors
    • Submit Manuscript
    • Author Center

Advanced Search

Main menu

  • Neurology.org
  • Journals
    • Neurology
    • Clinical Practice
    • Education
    • Genetics
    • Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
  • Online Sections
    • Neurology Video Journal Club
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)
    • Neurology: Clinical Practice Accelerator
    • Practice Buzz
    • Practice Current
    • Residents & Fellows
    • Without Borders
  • Collections
    • COVID-19
    • Disputes & Debates
    • Health Disparities
    • Infographics
    • Neurology Future Forecasting Series
    • Null Hypothesis
    • Patient Pages
    • Topics A-Z
    • Translations
    • UDDA Revision Series
  • Podcast
  • CME
  • About
    • About the Journals
    • Contact Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Authors
    • Submit Manuscript
    • Author Center
  • Home
  • Latest Articles
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Neurology Video Journal Club
  • Residents & Fellows

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • My Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Neurology
Home
The most widely read and highly cited peer-reviewed neurology journal
  • Subscribe
  • My Alerts
  • Log in
Site Logo
  • Home
  • Latest Articles
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Neurology Video Journal Club
  • Residents & Fellows

Share

July 19, 2011; 77 (3) Articles

Nontraditional risk factors combine to predict Alzheimer disease and dementia

Xiaowei Song, Arnold Mitnitski, Kenneth Rockwood
First published July 13, 2011, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e318225c6bc
Xiaowei Song
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Arnold Mitnitski
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kenneth Rockwood
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Full PDF
Citation
Nontraditional risk factors combine to predict Alzheimer disease and dementia
Xiaowei Song, Arnold Mitnitski, Kenneth Rockwood
Neurology Jul 2011, 77 (3) 227-234; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e318225c6bc

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Permissions

Make Comment

See Comments

Downloads
3256

Share

  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Disclosures
Loading

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether dementia risk can be estimated using only health deficits not known to predict dementia.

Methods: A frailty index consisting of 19 deficits not known to predict dementia (the nontraditional risk factors index [FI-NTRF]) was constructed for 7,239 cognitively healthy, community-dwelling older adults in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. From baseline, their 5-year and 10-year risks for Alzheimer disease (AD), dementia of all types, and survival were estimated.

Results: The FI-NTRF was closely correlated with age (r2 > 0.96, p < 0.001). The incidence of AD and dementia increased exponentially with the FI-NTRF (r2 > 0.75, p < 0.001 over 10 years). Adjusted for age, sex, education, and baseline cognition, the odds ratio of dementia increased by 3.2%(p = 0.021) for each deficit (that was not known to predict dementia) accumulated, outperforming the individual cognitive risk factors. The FI-NTRF discriminated people with AD and all-cause dementia from those who were cognitively healthy with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.66 ± 0.03.

Conclusions: Comprehensive re-evaluation of a well-characterized cohort showed that age-associated decline in health status, in addition to traditional risk factors, is a risk factor for AD and dementia. General health may be an important confounder to consider in dementia risk factor evaluation. If a diverse range of deficits is associated with dementia, then improving general health might reduce dementia risk.

Footnotes

  • Study funding: Supported by operating grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP-209888) and the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (MED2006-2086), and by a fellowship from the Alzheimer Society of Canada. K.R. receives funding from the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation as Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research.

  • 3MS=
    Modified Mini-Mental State Examination;
    AD=
    Alzheimer disease;
    AR=
    attributable risk;
    AUC=
    area under the curve;
    CI=
    confidence interval;
    CSHA=
    Canadian Study of Health and Aging;
    DSM-III-R=
    Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition, revised;
    FI-NTRF=
    frailty index of nontraditional risk factors;
    OR=
    odds ratio;
    ROC=
    receiver operating characteristic

  • Editorial, page 206

  • See page 212 and 219

  • Supplemental data at www.neurology.org

  • Embedded Image Scan this code with your smartphone to access this feature

  • Received September 17, 2010.
  • Accepted December 22, 2010.
  • Copyright © 2011 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.
View Full Text

Letters: Rapid online correspondence

No comments have been published for this article.
Comment

REQUIREMENTS

You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.

Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.

If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.

Submission specifications:

  • Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
  • Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
  • Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
  • Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
  • Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.

More guidelines and information on Disputes & Debates

Compose Comment

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
NOTE: The first author must also be the corresponding author of the comment.
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Publishing Agreement
NOTE: All authors, besides the first/corresponding author, must complete a separate Publishing Agreement Form and provide via email to the editorial office before comments can be posted.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

You May Also be Interested in

Back to top
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
    • DISCLOSURE
    • ACKNOWLEDGMENT
    • Footnotes
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Disclosures
Advertisement

Association Between Fluctuations in Blood Lipid Levels Over Time With Incident Alzheimer Disease and Alzheimer Disease–Related Dementias

Dr. Sevil Yaşar and Dr. Behnam Sabayan

► Watch

Related Articles

  • Risk factors for Alzheimer diseaseAging beyond age?
  • Proinflammatory cytokines, sickness behavior, and Alzheimer disease
  • Hemoglobin level in older persons and incident Alzheimer diseaseProspective cohort analysis

Topics Discussed

  • All Cognitive Disorders/Dementia
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Risk factors in epidemiology
  • Cognitive aging

Alert Me

  • Alert me when eletters are published

Recommended articles

  • Articles
    Joint effect of stroke and APOE 4 on dementia risk
    The Canadian Study of Health and Aging
    Y. P. Jin, T. Østbye, J. W. Feightner et al.
    Neurology, October 31, 2007
  • Article
    Insulin-like growth factor-1 and risk of Alzheimer dementia and brain atrophy
    Andrew J. Westwood, Alexa Beiser, Charles DeCarli et al.
    Neurology, April 04, 2014
  • Articles
    Neuropsychological tests accurately predict incident Alzheimer disease after 5 and 10 years
    Mary C. Tierney, Christie Yao, Alex Kiss et al.
    Neurology, June 13, 2005
  • Articles
    Serum cholesterol and risk of Alzheimer disease
    A community-based cohort study
    G. Li, J. B. Shofer, W. A. Kukull et al.
    Neurology, October 10, 2005
Neurology: 101 (14)

Articles

  • Ahead of Print
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Popular Articles
  • Translations

About

  • About the Journals
  • Ethics Policies
  • Editors & Editorial Board
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise

Submit

  • Author Center
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Information for Reviewers
  • AAN Guidelines
  • Permissions

Subscribers

  • Subscribe
  • Activate a Subscription
  • Sign up for eAlerts
  • RSS Feed
Site Logo
  • Visit neurology Template on Facebook
  • Follow neurology Template on Twitter
  • Visit Neurology on YouTube
  • Neurology
  • Neurology: Clinical Practice
  • Neurology: Education
  • Neurology: Genetics
  • Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
  • AAN.com
  • AANnews
  • Continuum
  • Brain & Life
  • Neurology Today

Wolters Kluwer Logo

Neurology | Print ISSN:0028-3878
Online ISSN:1526-632X

© 2023 American Academy of Neurology

  • Privacy Policy
  • Feedback
  • Advertise