The Cretan Aging Cohort: Cohort Description and Burden of Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment

Ioannis V. Zaganas, Panagiotis Simos, Maria Basta, Stefania Kapetanaki, Symeon Panagiotakis, Irini Koutentaki, Nikolaos Fountoulakis, Antonios Bertsias, George Duijker, Chariklia Tziraki, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Andreas Plaitakis, Dimitrios Boumpas, Christos Lionis, Alexandros N. Vgontzas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Our aim was to explore the burden of dementia in the Cretan Aging Cohort, comprised of 3140 persons aged ≥60 years (56.8% women, 5.8 ± 3.3 years formal education, 86.2% living in rural areas) who attended selected primary health-care facilities on the island of Crete, Greece. In the first study phase, a formal diagnosis of dementia had been reached in 4.0% of the participants. However, when selected 505 participants underwent thorough neuropsychiatric evaluation in the second phase of this study (344 with Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] <24 and 161 with MMSE ≥24), and results were extrapolated to the entire cohort, the prevalence of dementia and mild cognitive impairment was estimated at 10.8% (9.7%-11.9%) and 32.4% (30.8%-34.0%), respectively. Using both the field diagnostic data and the extrapolated data, the highest dementia prevalence (27.2%) was found in the 80- to 84-year-old group, who also showed the lowest educational level, apparently due to lack of schooling during World War II.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)23-33
Number of pages11
JournalAmerican journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias
Volume34
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Geriatrics and Gerontology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Clinical Psychology
  • General Neuroscience

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