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Prevalence of dementia in an urban population in Kerala, India
- Authors:
- SHAJI S., BOSE Srija, VERGESHE Abraham
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Psychiatry, 186(2), February 2005, pp.136-140.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
A door-to-door survey was conducted in the city of Kochi (Cochin) to identify residents aged 65 years using cluster sampling. Of 1934 people screened with a vernacular adaptation of the Mini-Mental State Examination, all those scoring at or below the cut-off of 23 were evaluated further and those with confirmed cognitive and functional impairment were assigned diagnoses according to DSM-IV criteria. Identified cases were categorised by ICD-10 criteria. Ten per cent of those screened as negative were evaluated at each stage. Prevalence of dementia was 33.6 per 1000 (95% CI 27.3-40.7). Alzheimer's disease was the most common type (54%) followed by vascular dementia (39%), and 7% of cases were due to causes such as infection, tumour and trauma. Family history of dementia was a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and history of hypertension was a risk factor for vascular dementia. Dementia is an important health problem of the elderly population. Identification of risk factors points towards the possibility of prevention.