Incidence of early-onset dementia in Mar del Plata

Early-onset dementia (EOD) is defined as dementia with onset before the age of 65 years. EOD is increasingly recognised as an important clinical and social problem with devastating consequences for patients and caregivers.

Determine the annual crude incidence rate and the specific incidence rates by sex and age in patients with EOD, and the standardised rate using the last national census of the population of Argentina (NCPA), from 2010.

Hospital Privado de Comunidad, Mar del Plata, Argentina, attends a closed population and is the sole healthcare provider for 17 614 people. Using the database pertaining to the Geriatric Care department, we identified all patients diagnosed with EOD between 1 January, 2005 and 31 December, 2011. EOD was defined as dementia diagnosed in patients younger than 65.

The study period yielded 14 patients diagnosed with EOD out of a total of 287 patients evaluated for memory concerns. The crude annual incidence of EOD was 11 per 100 000/year (CI 95%: 6.25-19.1): 17 per 100 000 (CI 95%: 7.2-33.1) in men and 8 per 100 000 (CI 95%: 3.4-17.2) in women. We observed a statistically significant increase when comparing incidence rates between patients aged 21 to <55 years and ≥ 55 to <65 years (3 vs 22 per 100 000, P=.0014). The rate adjusted by NCPA census data was 5.8 cases of EOD habitants/year.

This study, conducted in a closed population, yielded an EOD incidence rate of 11 per 100 000 inhabitants/year. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prospective epidemiological study in Argentina and in Latin America.