Predicting who will develop dementia in a cohort of Canadian seniors

We examined whether easily attainable variables were useful in predicting who became demented over a five year period and determined the rates of incident dementia for different categories of mild cognitive impairment.

This was a cohort study of subjects recruited nationally in a population-based survey of Canadians 65 years and older (the Canadian Study of Health and Aging). After standardized clinical assessments, a subset of subjects (n = 1782) was categorized as not demented at time one. Identical study methods allowed a reassessment of the cognitive status of surviving subjects (n = 892) five years later.

Three baseline variables (Modified Mini Mental State (3MS) score, subject's age, and an informant's report of the presence of memory problems) were statistically significant predictors of the development of a dementia. An equation incorporating these three variables had a sensitivity of 79% and a specificity of 56% for predicting dementia among survivors at time two. An equation substituting the MMSE for the 3MS showed similar results. The various categories of mild cognitive impairment examined showed significantly different likelihoods for the subsequent development of a dementia. Some categories with a higher dementia risk were characterized by inclusion criteria requiring neuropsychological test scores that were greater than one standard deviation (SD) below the mean of age based normative data.

In the absence of extensive laboratory, radiologic or neuropsychological tests, simple variables that can be easily determined in the course of a single clinical encounter were useful in predicting subjects with a higher risk of developing dementia. Attempts to use neuropsychological results to predict the development of dementia should look for significant impairments on age-standardized tests.