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Prevalence of Aging-Associated Cognitive Decline in an Italian elderly population: results from cross-sectional phase of Italian PRoject on Epidemiology of Alzheimer’s disease (IPREA)

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Abstract

Background and aims: The prevalence of the preclinical phase of dementia varies greatly, according to the diagnostic criteria and assessment procedures applied. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of cognitive impairment according to the Aging-Associated Cognitive Decline (AACD) diagnostic criteria in an Italian elderly population. Methods: In a multicenter community-based prospective study, 4785 Italian subjects aged 65–84 years, randomly selected from the registries of 12 Italian municipalities, were assessed by personal and informant interviews, physical and neurological examinations and an extensive neuropsychological battery. Results: Of these older subjects, 274 (9.2%) fulfilled all the AACD criteria, whereas 561 (18.8%) fulfilled only 3 of them (AACD-3). When the two groups diagnosed according to AACD criteria (AACD and AACD- 3) were merged, the prevalence was 28.0% (28.3% for men, 27.6% for women). Two other groups of subjects were also identified: a) Subjects with Objective evidence of Cognitive Decline without cognitive complaints (OCD), 508 (17.0%), i.e., subjects with documented neuropsychological deficits, although neither subjects nor informants reported cognitive complaints; and b) Subjects with Cognitive Complaints without objective demonstrable cognitive deficits (CC), 44 (1.5%), i.e., subjects and/or informants reported cognitive complaints without evidence of neuropsychological deficits. Thus, taking into account the additional OCD group, a total of 1343 persons with cognitive impairment without dementia (45.0%) was identified. Conclusions: On the basis of our results, we estimate that 45% of our population-based Italian sample aged 65–84 years had some kind of cognitive deficits without dementia.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center on Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Roma, Italy

    Emanuele Scafato, Claudia Gandin MD, Lucia Galluzzo, Silvia Ghirini, Simona Giampaoli, Sergio Mariotti & Gino Farchi

  2. Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Italy

    Francesco Cacciatore

  3. University of Bari and IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy

    Antonio Capurso, Vincenzo Solfrizzi & Francesco Panza

  4. University of Rome “Sacro Cuore”, Italy

    Alberto Cocchi

  5. ASL 8, Vibo Valentia, Italy

    Domenico Consoli

  6. Italian Research Council (CNR) and University of Padova, Italy

    Giuliano Enzi, Stefania Maggi & Gaetano Crepaldi

  7. Centro San Giovanni di Dio-Fatebenefratelli, IRCCS, Brescia, Italy

    Giovanni B. Frisoni

  8. University of Genova, Italy

    Carlo Gandolfo

  9. University of Florence and Italian Research Council (CNR), Italy

    Domenico Inzitari

  10. University of Perugia, Italy

    Patrizia Mecocci

  11. University of Catania, Italy

    Massimo Motta

  12. USL Bologna Nord, Italy

    Roberto Negrini

  13. INRCA, Fermo (AP), Italy

    Demetrio Postacchini

  14. University of Naples, Italy

    Franco Rengo

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  1. Emanuele Scafato
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  2. Claudia Gandin MD
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I.PR.E.A. Working Group (Italian PRoject on Epidemiology of Alzheimer’s disease)

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudia Gandin MD.

Additional information

For list of participants in the I.PR.E.A. working group, see the Appendix.

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Scafato, E., Gandin, C., Galluzzo, L. et al. Prevalence of Aging-Associated Cognitive Decline in an Italian elderly population: results from cross-sectional phase of Italian PRoject on Epidemiology of Alzheimer’s disease (IPREA). Aging Clin Exp Res 22, 440–449 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03337739

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