Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Apr;67(4):358-65.
doi: 10.1093/gerona/glr250. Epub 2012 Mar 1.

Understanding dementia prevalence among centenarians

Leonard W Poon  1 , John L Woodard, L Stephen Miller, Robert Green, Marla Gearing, Adam Davey, Jonathan Arnold, Peter Martin, Ilene C Siegler, Lusine Nahapetyan, Young Sek Kim, William Markesbery
Affiliations

Understanding dementia prevalence among centenarians

Leonard W Poon et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2012 Apr.

Abstract

The goals of this article are to (a) establish the concurrent and clinical validity of the Global Deterioration scale in assessing cognitive functions and stages of dementia among centenarians, (b) identify the prevalence of all-cause dementia in representative samples of centenarians, and (c) demonstrate how variations in sample demographic characteristics could significantly affect estimates of dementia prevalence. A quarter of the 244 centenarians in a population-based sample had no objective evidence of memory deficits. Another quarter showed signs of transient confusion, and about half showed classical behavioral signs of dementia with about 15% in each of Global Deterioration scale stages 4-6 and about 5% in the most severe stage 7. Variations in age, gender, race, residence status, and education of the study sample as well as criteria used for dementia rating were found to affect prevalence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The frequency distribution of dementia severity for centenarians (mean = 3.9, SD = 1.7).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Blansjaar BA, Thomassen R, Van Schaick HW. Prevalence of dementia in centenarians. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2000;15(3):219–225. - PubMed
    1. Andersen-Ranberg K, Vasegaard L, Jeune B. Dementia is not inevitable: a population-based study of Danish centenarians. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2001;56(3):P152–P159. - PubMed
    1. Ravaglia G, Forti P, De Ronchi D, et al. Prevalence and severity of dementia among northern Italian centenarians. Neurology. 1999;53(2):416–418. - PubMed
    1. Engberg H, Christensen K, Andersen-Ranberg K, Jeune B. Cohort changes in cognitive function among Danish centenarians. A comparative study of 2 birth cohorts born in 1895 and 1905. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2008;26(2):153–160. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Thomassen R, van Schaick HW, Blansjaar BA. Prevalence of dementia over age 100. Neurology. 998;50(1):283–286. - PubMed

Publication types