Breteler M M, Claus J J, Grobbee D E, Hofman A
Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
BMJ. 1994 Jun 18;308(6944):1604-8. doi: 10.1136/bmj.308.6944.1604.
To investigate the distribution of cognitive function in elderly people and to assess the impact of clinical manifestations of atherosclerotic disease on this distribution.
Single centre population based cross sectional door to door study.
Ommoord, a suburb of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
4971 subjects aged 55 to 94 years.
Cognitive function as measured by the mini mental state examination.
The overall participation rate in the study was 80%. Cognitive test data were available for 90% of the participants. Increasing age and lower educational level were associated with poorer cognitive function. Previous vascular events, presence of plaques in the carotid arteries, and presence of peripheral arterial atherosclerotic disease were associated with worse cognitive performance independent of the effects of age and education. On average the differences were moderate; however, they reflected the net result of a shift of the total population distribution of cognitive function towards lower values. Thereby, they resulted in a considerable increase in the proportion of subjects with scores indicative of dementia.
These findings are compatible with the view that atherosclerotic disease accounts for considerable cognitive impairment in the general population.
调查老年人认知功能的分布情况，并评估动脉粥样硬化疾病临床表现对这一分布的影响。
基于单中心人群的挨家挨户横断面研究。
荷兰鹿特丹郊区奥莫德。
4971名年龄在55至94岁之间的受试者。
通过简易精神状态检查表测量的认知功能。
该研究的总体参与率为80%。90%的参与者有认知测试数据。年龄增长和教育水平较低与较差的认知功能相关。既往血管事件、颈动脉斑块的存在以及外周动脉粥样硬化疾病的存在与较差的认知表现相关，且独立于年龄和教育的影响。平均而言，差异为中等程度；然而，它们反映了认知功能总体人群分布向较低值转移的净结果。由此，它们导致了痴呆症评分受试者比例的显著增加。
这些发现与动脉粥样硬化疾病导致普通人群相当大比例认知障碍的观点一致。
