Journal
JOURNAL OF ALZHEIMERS DISEASE
Volume 59, Issue 1, Pages 141-153Publisher
IOS PRESS
DOI: 10.3233/JAD-170050
Keywords
Cognitively normal; dementia; mild behavioral impairment; mild cognitive impairment; neuropsychiatric symptoms
Categories
Funding
- Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Dementia Research Development Fellowship [1102028]
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research Project [CE110001029]
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute
- Alzheimer Society Calgary
- NHMRC [1102694, 1002160]
- Australian Research Council (ARC) [CE110001029]
- National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia [1102694] Funding Source: NHMRC
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Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are common in older adults with cognitive impairment, yet little is known about population-based prevalence and clinical implications of co-morbid symptom presentation across the spectrum from normal cognition to dementia. Objective: To characterize the prevalence of NPS and explore the clinical implications of co-morbid symptom presentation. Methods: Cross-sectional study of 1,417 older adults (aged 73-79) with dementia (n = 40); with mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 133); who are 'cognitively normal, but-at-risk' (CN-AR; n = 397); and who are cognitively normal (n = 847). NPS were assessed by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Cluster analyses were conducted using a latent class analysis (LCA). Results: NPS are highly prevalent across the cognitive function spectrum (30.8%-80%). NPS were associated with a 3-fold increased risk of dementia, a 2-fold increased risk of MCI, and a 1.5-times increased risk of CN-AR. Each additional co-morbid symptom was associated with an additional 1.5-times increased risk of dementia, but not MCI or CN-AR. LCA revealed four distinctive sub-populations: 1) frontal/ low comorbidity; 2) high prevalence/high comorbidity; 3) affective/low comorbidity; and 4) sleep/low comorbidity. Conclusion: Our findings confirm previous reports on the prevalence of NPS in community-based samples and are consistent with the profiles of NPS domain characteristics of MCI and dementia. Number of co-morbid NPS and not symptom clusters are associated with increased risk of dementia. Understanding such patterns will help inform our understanding of mild behavioral disorders and assist with clinical assessment.
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