16 research outputs found
Associations of Subjective Memory Complaints and Simple Memory Task Scores With Future Dementia in the Primary Care Setting
PURPOSE: Family physicians need simple yet comprehensive algorithms to discriminate between community-dwelling older persons who are at increased risk of dementia and those who are not. We aimed to investigate associations between incident dementia and responses to a single question regarding subjective memory complaints (SMC) combined with scores on 2 simple memory tests that are easy to use in the primary care setting. METHODS: Analyses were based on data from 3,454 community-dwelling older persons who participated in the 6- to 8-year Prevention of Dementia by Intensive Vascular Care (preDIVA) trial, yielding 21,341 person-years of observation. Participants were considered a single cohort. We used Cox models to assess separate and combined associations of SMC, an imperfect score on the Mini-Mental State Examination delayed recall item (MMSE-5), and an imperfect score on the Visual Association Test (VAT) with future dementia. RESULTS: Subjective memory complaints alone were associated with future dementia (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.01; 95% CI, 2.31-3.94; P <.001), as were the MMSE-5 (HR = 2.14; 95% CI, 1.59-2.87; P <.001) and VAT (HR = 3.19; 95% CI, 2.46-4.13; P <.001) scores. After a median follow-up of 6.7 years, the occurrence of dementia ranged from 4% to 30% among persons with SMC, depending on the MMSE-5 and VAT scores. These test scores did not substantially alter the association with future dementia for persons without SMC. CONCLUSIONS: In persons with SMC, the strength of the association between future dementia and an imperfect MMSE-5 score depends substantially on the VAT score
Apathy is associated with incident dementia in community-dwelling older people
To assess whether apathy and depressive symptoms are independently associated with incident dementia during 6-year follow-up in a prospective observational population-based cohort study. Participants were community-dwelling older people in the Prevention of Dementia by Intensive Vascular Care trial, aged 70-78 years, without dementia at baseline. Apathy and depressive symptoms were measured using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15). Dementia during follow-up was established by clinical diagnosis confirmed by an independent outcome adjudication committee. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression analyses. Given its potentially strong relation with incipient dementia, the GDS item referring to memory complaints was assessed separately. Dementia occurred in 232/3,427 (6.8%) participants. Apathy symptoms were associated with dementia (HR 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12-1.45; p < 0.001), also after adjustment for age, sex, Mini-Mental State Examination score, disability, and history of stroke or cardiovascular disease (HR 1.21, 95% CI 1.06-1.40; p = 0.007), and in participants without depressive symptoms (HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.06-1.49; p = 0.01). Depressive symptoms were associated with dementia (HR 1.12, 95% CI 1.05-1.19), also without apathy symptoms (HR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03-1.31; p = 0.015), but not after full adjustment or after removing the GDS item on memory complaints. Apathy and depressive symptoms are independently associated with incident dementia in community-dwelling older people. Subjective memory complaints may play an important role in the association between depressive symptoms and dementia. Our findings suggest apathy symptoms may be prodromal to dementia and might be used in general practice to identify individuals without cognitive impairment at increased risk of dementi
Association of Apathy with Risk of Incident Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Importance: Fear of dementia is pervasive in older people with cognitive concerns. Much research is devoted to finding prognostic markers for dementia risk. Studies suggest apathy in older people may be prodromal to dementia and could be a relevant, easily measurable predictor of increased dementia risk. However, evidence is fragmented and methods vary greatly between studies. Objective: To systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the evidence for an association between apathy in dementia-free older individuals and incident dementia. Data Sources: Two reviewers conducted a systematic search of Medline, Embase, and PsychINFO databases. Study Selection: Inclusion criteria were (1) prospective cohort studies, (2) in general populations or memory clinic patients without dementia, (3) with clear definitions of apathy and dementia, and (4) reporting on the association between apathy and incident dementia. Data Extraction and Synthesis: PRISMA and MOOSE guidelines were followed. Data were extracted by 1 reviewer and checked by a second. Main Outcomes and Measures: Main outcomes were pooled crude risk ratios, maximally adjusted reported hazard ratios (HR), and odds ratios (OR) using DerSimonian-Laird random effects models. Results: The mean age of the study populations ranged from 69.2 to 81.9 years (median, 71.6 years) and the percentage of women ranged from 35% to 70% (median, 53%). After screening 2031 titles and abstracts, 16 studies comprising 7365 participants were included. Apathy status was available for 7299 participants. Studies included populations with subjective cognitive concerns (n = 2), mild cognitive impairment (n = 11), cognitive impairment no dementia (n = 1), or mixed cognitive and no cognitive impairment (n = 2). Apathy was present in 1470 of 7299 participants (20.1%). Follow-up ranged from 1.2 to 5.4 years. In studies using validated apathy definitions (n = 12), the combined risk ratio of dementia for patients with apathy was 1.81 (95% CI, 1.32-2.50; I2 = 76%; n = 12), the hazard ratio was 2.39 (95% CI, 1.27-4.51; I2 = 90%; n = 7), and the odds ratio was 17.14 (95% CI, 1.91-154.0; I2 = 60%; n = 2). Subgroup analyses, meta-regression, and individual study results suggested the association between apathy and dementia weakened with increasing follow-up time, age, and cognitive impairment. Meta-regression adjusting for apathy definition and follow-up time explained 95% of heterogeneity in mild cognitive impairment. Conclusions and Relevance: Apathy was associated with an approximately 2-fold increased risk of dementia in memory clinic patients. Moderate publication bias may have inflated some of these estimates. Apathy deserves more attention as a relevant, cheap, noninvasive, and easily measureable marker of increased risk of incident dementia with high clinical relevance, particularly because these vulnerable patients may forgo health care.
Association of Apathy With Risk of Incident Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
IMPORTANCE: Fear of dementia is pervasive in older people with cognitive concerns. Much research is devoted to finding prognostic markers for dementia risk. Studies suggest apathy in older people may be prodromal to dementia and could be a relevant, easily measurable predictor of increased dementia risk. However, evidence is fragmented and methods vary greatly between studies. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the evidence for an association between apathy in dementia-free older individuals and incident dementia. DATA SOURCES: Two reviewers conducted a systematic search of Medline, Embase, and PsychINFO databases. STUDY SELECTION: Inclusion criteria were (1) prospective cohort studies, (2) in general populations or memory clinic patients without dementia, (3) with clear definitions of apathy and dementia, and (4) reporting on the association between apathy and incident dementia. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: PRISMA and MOOSE guidelines were followed. Data were extracted by 1 reviewer and checked by a second. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Main outcomes were pooled crude risk ratios, maximally adjusted reported hazard ratios (HR), and odds ratios (OR) using DerSimonian-Laird random effects models. RESULTS: The mean age of the study populations ranged from 69.2 to 81.9 years (median, 71.6 years) and the percentage of women ranged from 35% to 70% (median, 53%). After screening 2031 titles and abstracts, 16 studies comprising 7365 participants were included. Apathy status was available for 7299 participants. Studies included populations with subjective cognitive concerns (n = 2), mild cognitive impairment (n = 11), cognitive impairment no dementia (n = 1), or mixed cognitive and no cognitive impairment (n = 2). Apathy was present in 1470 of 7299 participants (20.1%). Follow-up ranged from 1.2 to 5.4 years. In studies using validated apathy definitions (n = 12), the combined risk ratio of dementia for patients with apathy was 1.81 (95% CI, 1.32-2.50; I2 = 76%; n = 12), the hazard ratio was 2.39 (95% CI, 1.27-4.51; I2 = 90%; n = 7), and the odds ratio was 17.14 (95% CI, 1.91-154.0; I2 = 60%; n = 2). Subgroup analyses, meta-regression, and individual study results suggested the association between apathy and dementia weakened with increasing follow-up time, age, and cognitive impairment. Meta-regression adjusting for apathy definition and follow-up time explained 95% of heterogeneity in mild cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Apathy was associated with an approximately 2-fold increased risk of dementia in memory clinic patients. Moderate publication bias may have inflated some of these estimates. Apathy deserves more attention as a relevant, cheap, noninvasive, and easily measureable marker of increased risk of incident dementia with high clinical relevance, particularly because these vulnerable patients may forgo health care
Pooling individual participant data from randomized controlled trials: Exploring potential loss of information
Contains fulltext :
219812.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
Recommended from our members
Pooling individual participant data from randomized controlled trials: Exploring potential loss of information
Background: Pooling individual participant data to enable pooled analyses is often complicated by diversity in variables across available datasets. Therefore, recoding original variables is often necessary to build a pooled dataset. We aimed to quantify how much information is lost in this process and to what extent this jeopardizes validity of analyses results. Methods: Data were derived from a platform that was developed to pool data from three randomized controlled trials on the effect of treatment of cardiovascular risk factors on cognitive decline or dementia. We quantified loss of information using the R-squared of linear regression models with pooled variables as a function of their original variable(s). In case the R-squared was below 0.8, we additionally explored the potential impact of loss of information for future analyses. We did this second step by comparing whether the Beta coefficient of the predictor differed more than 10% when adding original or recoded variables as a confounder in a linear regression model. In a simulation we randomly sampled numbers, recoded those 1000 to 1 and varied the range of the continuous variable, the ratio of recoded zeroes to recoded ones, or both, and again extracted the R-squared from linear models to quantify information loss. Results: The R-squared was below 0.8 for 8 out of 91 recoded variables. In 4 cases this had a substantial impact on the regression models, particularly when a continuous variable was recoded into a discrete variable. Our simulation showed that the least information is lost when the ratio of recoded zeroes to ones is 1:1. Conclusions: Large, pooled datasets provide great opportunities, justifying the efforts for data harmonization. Still, caution is warranted when using recoded variables which variance is explained limitedly by their original variables as this may jeopardize the validity of study results
Association of Targeting Vascular Risk Factors with a Reduction in Dementia Incidence in Old Age: Secondary Analysis of the Prevention of Dementia by Intensive Vascular care (preDIVA) Randomized Clinical Trial
This follow-up analysis of a randomized clinical trial investigates the association of multidomain interventions targeting vascular risk factors with dementia incidence among community-dwelling older adults
Diagnostic Accuracy of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status for the Detection of Dementia in Primary Care
PURPOSE: Cognitive diagnostic work-up in primary care is not always physically feasible, owing to chronic disabilities and/or travel restrictions. The identification of dementia might be facilitated with diagnostic instruments that are time efficient and easy to perform, as well as useful in the remote setting. We assessed whether the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) might be a simple and accurate alternative for remote diagnostic cognitive screening in primary care. METHODS: We administered the TICS (range, 0-41) for 810 of 1,473 older people aged 84.5 (SD, 2.4) years. We scrutinized electronic health records for participants with TICS scores ≤30 and for a random sample of participants with TICS scores >30 for a dementia diagnosis using all data from the Prevention of Dementia by Intensive Vascular Care (preDIVA) trial for 8-12 years of follow-up. We used multiple imputation to correct for verification bias. RESULTS: Of the 810 participants, 155 (19.1%) had a TICS score ≤30, and 655 (80.9%) had a TICS score >30. Electronic health records yielded 8.4% (13/154) dementia diagnoses for participants with TICS ≤30 vs none with TICS >30. Multiple imputation for TICS >30 yielded a median of 7/655 (1.1%; interquartile range, 5-8) estimated dementia cases. After multiple imputation, the optimal cutoff score was ≤29, with mean sensitivity 65.4%, specificity 87.8%, positive predictive value 11.9%, negative predictive value 99.0%, and area under the curve 77.4% (95% CI, 56.3%-90.0%). CONCLUSIONS: In the present older population, the TICS performed well as a diagnostic screening instrument for excluding dementia and might be particularly useful when face-to-face diagnostic screening is not feasible in family practice or research settings. The potential reach to large numbers of people at low cost could contribute to more efficient medical management in primary care
Healthy ageing through internet counselling in the elderly (HATICE): a multinational, randomised controlled trial
Contains fulltext :
225965.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access