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Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research

Both the incidence and the prevalence of dementia increase exponentially with increasing age. This raises the question of whether dementia is an inevitable consequence of aging or whether aging without dementia is achievable. In this review article, we sought to summarize the current evidence from e...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Qiu, Chengxuan, Fratiglioni, Laura
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: IOS Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29562544
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-171037
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author Qiu, Chengxuan
Fratiglioni, Laura
author_facet Qiu, Chengxuan
Fratiglioni, Laura
author_sort Qiu, Chengxuan
collection PubMed
description Both the incidence and the prevalence of dementia increase exponentially with increasing age. This raises the question of whether dementia is an inevitable consequence of aging or whether aging without dementia is achievable. In this review article, we sought to summarize the current evidence from epidemiological and neuropathological studies that investigated this topic. Epidemiological studies have shown that dementia could be avoided even at extreme old ages (e.g., centenarians or supercentenarians). Furthermore, clinico-neuropathological studies found that nearly half of centenarians with dementia did not have sufficient brain pathology to explain their cognitive symptoms, while intermediate-to-high Alzheimer pathology was present in around one-third of very old people without dementia or cognitive impairment. This suggests that certain compensatory mechanisms (e.g., cognitive reserve or resilience) may play a role in helping people in extreme old ages escape dementia syndrome. Finally, evidence has been accumulating in recent years indicating that the incidence of dementia has declined in Europe and North America, which supports the view that the risk of dementia in late life is modifiable. Evidence has emerged that intervention strategies that promote general health, maintain vascular health, and increase cognitive reserve are likely to help preserve cognitive function till late life, thus achieving the goal of aging without dementia.
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spelling pubmed-58700112018-03-29 Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research Qiu, Chengxuan Fratiglioni, Laura J Alzheimers Dis Review Both the incidence and the prevalence of dementia increase exponentially with increasing age. This raises the question of whether dementia is an inevitable consequence of aging or whether aging without dementia is achievable. In this review article, we sought to summarize the current evidence from epidemiological and neuropathological studies that investigated this topic. Epidemiological studies have shown that dementia could be avoided even at extreme old ages (e.g., centenarians or supercentenarians). Furthermore, clinico-neuropathological studies found that nearly half of centenarians with dementia did not have sufficient brain pathology to explain their cognitive symptoms, while intermediate-to-high Alzheimer pathology was present in around one-third of very old people without dementia or cognitive impairment. This suggests that certain compensatory mechanisms (e.g., cognitive reserve or resilience) may play a role in helping people in extreme old ages escape dementia syndrome. Finally, evidence has been accumulating in recent years indicating that the incidence of dementia has declined in Europe and North America, which supports the view that the risk of dementia in late life is modifiable. Evidence has emerged that intervention strategies that promote general health, maintain vascular health, and increase cognitive reserve are likely to help preserve cognitive function till late life, thus achieving the goal of aging without dementia. IOS Press 2018-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC5870011/ /pubmed/29562544 http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-171037 Text en © 2018 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review
Qiu, Chengxuan
Fratiglioni, Laura
Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research
title Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research
title_full Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research
title_fullStr Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research
title_full_unstemmed Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research
title_short Aging without Dementia is Achievable: Current Evidence from Epidemiological Research
title_sort aging without dementia is achievable: current evidence from epidemiological research
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29562544
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-171037
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