Prevalence of Dementia among Elderly People in Troina, Sicily

We performed a two-stage survey on the prevalence of dementia among people aged over 74 in Troina, northern Sicily, Italy. During the first stage people were screened by the Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE), previously validated in our population for the cut-off score with 100% sensitivity and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of epidemiology 1996-12, Vol.12 (6), p.595-599
Main Authors: D'Alessandro, Roberto, Pandolfo, Giuseppe, Azzimondi, Giuseppe, Feruglio, Francesco Saverio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Distribution
Age groups
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimers disease
Biological and medical sciences
Communities
Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases
Dementia
Dementia - diagnosis
Dementia - epidemiology
Dementia - etiology
Epidemiology
Female
Health Surveys
Humans
Intelligence Tests
Male
Medical sciences
Men
Neurologic examination
Neurology
Neuropsychology
Older adults
Prevalence
Sicily - epidemiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We performed a two-stage survey on the prevalence of dementia among people aged over 74 in Troina, northern Sicily, Italy. During the first stage people were screened by the Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE), previously validated in our population for the cut-off score with 100% sensitivity and the best specificity to diagnose dementia. During the second stage people scoring 19 or less at the MMSE test were invited to be examined by a neurologist who diagnosed dementia according to DSM-III R. Out of 365 subjects of the initial sample 347 were screened by MMSE test and 163 scored 19 or less. Of these, 135 were neurologically and neuropsychologically examined in the second stage, and 80 proved to be demented. The minimal estimate of prevalence of dementia in our sample was 21.9% (21.9% men, 21.8% women). The poor education and psychosocial life may be the underlying condition favoring dementia in this sample of elderly people.
ISSN:0393-2990
1573-7284
DOI:10.1007/BF00499458