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
Comparative Study
. 2013 Jul;70(7):867-74.
doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2013.1959.

Reduced prevalence of cognitive impairment in families with exceptional longevity

Stephanie Cosentino  1 , Nicole Schupf, Kaare Christensen, Stacy L Andersen, Anne Newman, Richard Mayeux
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Reduced prevalence of cognitive impairment in families with exceptional longevity

Stephanie Cosentino et al. JAMA Neurol. 2013 Jul.

Abstract

Importance: Family studies of centenarians and long-lived persons have found substantial familial aggregation of survival to extreme ages; however, the extent to which such familial longevity is characterized by cognitively intact survival is not established.

Objective: To determine whether families with exceptional longevity are protected against cognitive impairment consistent with Alzheimer disease.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis.

Setting: Multisite study in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Denmark.

Participants: A total of 1870 individuals (1510 family members and 360 spouse controls) recruited through the Long Life Family Study.

Main outcome and measure: Prevalence of cognitive impairment based on a diagnostic algorithm validated using the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center data set.

Results: The cognitive algorithm classified 546 individuals (38.5%) as having cognitive impairment consistent with Alzheimer disease. Long Life Family Study probands had a slightly but not statistically significant reduced risk of cognitive impairment compared with spouse controls (121 of 232 for probands vs 45 of 103 for spouse controls; odds ratio = 0.7; 95% CI, 0.4-1.4), whereas Long Life Family Study sons and daughters had a clearly reduced risk of cognitive impairment (11 of 213 for sons and daughters vs 28 of 216 for spouse controls; odds ratio = 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-0.9). Restriction to nieces and nephews in the offspring generation attenuated this effect (37 of 328 for nieces and nephews vs 28 of 216 for spouse controls; odds ratio = 0.8; 95% CI, 0.4-1.4).

Conclusions and relevance: Rates of cognitive impairment characteristic of Alzheimer disease were relatively high. In the proband generation, rates were comparable across family members and spouse controls, whereas sons and daughters of probands had significantly lower rates than spouse controls. Results suggest a delayed onset of cognitive impairment in families with exceptional longevity, but assessment of age-specific incidence rates is required to confirm this hypothesis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percent Cognitively Intact Survival in LLFS Family Members and Controls Note. Solid bars = LLFS Family Members; Striped Bars = Controls
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. NIA Aging and Genetic Epidemiology Working Group. Genetic epidemiologic studies on age-specific traits. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2000;152:1003–1008. - PubMed
    1. Ebly EM, Parhad IM, Hogan DB, Fung TS. Prevalence and types of dementia in the very old: results from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. Neurology. 1994;44:1593–1600. - PubMed
    1. Graves AB, Larson EB, Edland SD, et al. Prevalence of dementia and its subtypes in the Japanese American population of King County, Washington state. The Kame Project. Am J Epidemiol. 1996;144:760–771. - PubMed
    1. Ritchie K, Kildea D. Is senile dementia age-related or ageing-related: evidence from meta-analysis of dementia prevalence in the oldest old. Lancet. 1997;346 - PubMed
    1. von Strauss E, Viitanen M, De Ronchi D, Winblad B, Fratiglioni L. Aging and the occurrence of dementia: findings from a population-based cohort with a large sample of nonagenarians. Arch Neurol. 1999;56:587–592. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources