Prevalence and Risk Factors of Dementia in the Community Elderly

Park, Nam Hee; Lee, Youn Mee; E, Lu Rie

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was to estimate the prevalence of dementia in order to estimate the associations of dementia with its risk factors in the community elderly.
METHODS
The multistage random cluster sampling method was used to select the subjects. The response rate was 94.3%. For the 1st stage screening survey, the Korean-version Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) and the Bathel Index of activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) were used as primary screening tools. At the 2nd stage, diagnoses were confirmed according to the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) and Computer Tomogram (CT).
RESULTS
Age-sex adjusted prevalence (%) [95% CI] of dementia was 6.25% [4.47-7.83] (male 4.21% [2.40-6.02]; female 8.28% [5.71-10.85]). Four statistically significant risk factors of the dementia were identified: age 70-74 (OR=1.367), age 75-79 (OR=1.712), age 80-84 (OR=2.465), age 85 over (OR=7.363); illiteracy (OR=3.827); unconsciousness after head injury (OR=3.383), and no exercise (OR=2.188). Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness-of-fit index of dementia risk model was E (logit of dementia)= -4.337+0.312*Age(70~74)+0.538*Age(75~79)+0.902*Age(80~84)+1.996*Age(85over)+1.342*Illiteracy+1.219*Unconsciousness after head trauma+0.783*No exercise. We confirmed that the overall prevalence of dementia in adults aged 65 and older was 94.3%. The risk factors of dementia were explained by age, illiteracy, unconsciousness after head trauma and no exercise.
CONCLUSION
These data have been used to estimate the incidence of dementia in elderly community population and to manage the possible role of risk factors as predictors of dementia.