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
. 2018 Sep 21;13(9):e0204436.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204436. eCollection 2018.

Survival and years of life lost in various aetiologies of dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in Norway

Bjørn Heine Strand  1   2   3   4 , Anne-Brita Knapskog  2 , Karin Persson  1   2 , Trine Holt Edwin  1   2 , Rachel Amland  1   2 , Marit Mjørud  1 , Espen Bjertness  4 , Knut Engedal  1   2 , Geir Selbæk  1   2   5
Affiliations

Survival and years of life lost in various aetiologies of dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in Norway

Bjørn Heine Strand et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease patients are reported to have higher survival rate compared to patients with vascular dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies. There is a paucity of studies investigating survival including persons with cognitive decline and dementia of various aetiologies.

Objectives: We aimed to compare survival for patients with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, mixed Alzheimer's/vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies/Parkinson's disease, and other dementias compared to the general Norwegian population, taking into account the role of gender, cognitive function, function in everyday activities, comorbidity and education.

Methods: Patients (N = 4682), ≥65 years, in the The Norwegian register of persons assessed for cognitive symptoms (NorCog) during 2009-2017 were followed for mortality in the National Registry until January 2018. Flexible parametric survival models were applied to estimate relative survival, life expectancy and years of life lost for diagnostic groups compared with the general population.

Results: Patients with vascular dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies/Parkinson's had the shortest survival, followed by mixed dementia, Alzheimer's disease, unspecified dementia, mild cognitive impairment and subjective cognitive decline. At age 70 years, men with vascular dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies/Parkinson's had life expectancy of 4.7 years, which corresponded to 10.3 years of life lost compared to the general population. Years of life lost for other diagnoses were 10.0 years for mixed dementia, 9.2 years for Alzheimer's disease, 9.3 years for other dementias, 5.2 years for mild cognitive impairment and 2.2 years for subjective cognitive decline. Corresponding years of life lost in women were: 12.7 years, 10.5 years, 9.8 years, 10.6 years, 7.8 years, and 2.6 years. Poor relative survival among dementia patients was associated with male gender, comorbidity, low cognitive function, and low function in activities of daily living.

Conclusions: Compared with the general population, patients with subjective cognitive decline had no significant loss in life expectancy, while patients with mild cognitive impairment and all dementia subtypes had large losses, especially those with a diagnosis of vascular dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies/Parkinson's.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Dr. Edwin reports personal fees and other from Roche BN29553, personal fees and other from Boehringer-Ingelheim 1346.0023, outside the submitted work; Dr. Persson reports other from Roche, outside the submitted work; Dr. Knapskog reports other from Roche, from Boehringer-Ingelheim, outside the submitted work. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Survival by diagnosis groups at age 75 years, by gender.
Modelled using flexible parametric models including diagnosis, age, gender and diagnosis by gender interaction terms. N = 4,682.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Relative survival of diagnosis groups compared to normal population at age 75 years, by gender.
Modelled using flexible parametric models including diagnosis, age, gender and diagnosis by gender interaction terms. N = 4,682.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Todd S, Barr S, Roberts M, Passmore A. Survival in dementia and predictors of mortality: A review. International journal of geriatric psychiatry. 2013;28(11):1109–24. 10.1002/gps.3946 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Global, regional, and national age-sex specific mortality for 264 causes of death, 1980–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet (London, England). 2017;390(10100):1151–210. Epub 2017/09/19. 10.1016/s0140-6736(17)32152-9 . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Garcia-Ptacek S, Farahmand B, Kareholt I, Religa D, Cuadrado ML, Eriksdotter M. Mortality risk after dementia diagnosis by dementia type and underlying factors: A cohort of 15,209 patients based on the Swedish Dementia Registry. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2014;41(2):467–77. 10.3233/JAD-131856 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brodaty H, Seeher K, Gibson L. Dementia time to death: a systematic literature review on survival time and years of life lost in people with dementia. International Psychogeriatrics. 2012;24(7):1034–45. Epub 02/13. 10.1017/S1041610211002924 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Larsson V, Torisson G, Londos E. Relative survival in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease dementia. PloS one. 2018;13(8):e0202044 Epub 2018/08/11. 10.1371/journal.pone.0202044 . - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms