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Epidemiology and risk factors of dementia

Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Center, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
W M van der Flier
Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Center, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB Amsterdam, The Netherlands; wm.vdflier@vumc.nl

Keywords: dementia; Alzheimer’s disease

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Dementia refers to a syndrome that is characterised by progressive deterioration of cognitive functions. Neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as apathy, agitation, and depression, are also common. With increasing loss of function, a patient is gradually robbed of his or her independence. Eventually, placement in a nursing home may be necessary. Patients with dementia usually survive 7—10 years after onset of symptoms. Dementia places a tremendous burden not only on caregivers, but also on society, and has already been established as one of the major challenges of this century.¹

Epidemiology refers to the medical science that studies frequencies of disease.² Measures of frequency that are often used in epidemiology are prevalence and incidence. The concept of prevalence refers to the number of patients with a disease at a certain moment in time, whereas measures of incidence reflect the number of new cases over time. Although important for health care planners, the knowledge . . . [Full text of this article]