Which people with Alzheimer's disease are likely to progress to severe disease most quickly? A new study sheds light on clinical and demographic risk factors. The study was published in Alzheimer's & Dementia (Volume 9, page 2040).
Researchers examined data from 5,092 participants (over age 65) in the Cache County Memory Study and identified 335 cases of possible or probable Alzheimer's disease. During the more than 15-year study, 20 percent (68) of this group developed severe Alzheimer's disease.
The median survival time to severe Alzheimer's disease was 8.4 years. Being a woman, having less than a high school education, having clinically significant dementia-related behavior symptoms and being either relatively young or old at disease onset (younger than 81 or older than 86) were associated with more rapid disease progression.
Men had a higher risk of death than women, and the presence of at least mild dementia or one neuropsychiatric symptom at the start of the study predicted both severe dementia and death. Worse general health was associated with both severe dementia and death, but having an apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 allele, which is associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease, did not increase either of these risks.
Identification of factors that influence progression of Alzheimer's disease might offer targets for the development of therapies to slow or halt it.