Hendrie H C
Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, USA.
Geriatrics. 1997 Sep;52 Suppl 2:S4-8.
Epidemiologic studies of disease fall into two large categories: descriptive and analytic. Both approaches have been used in studies of dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The prevalence of dementia in persons age 65 and older in North America is approximately 6 to 10%, with AD accounting for two-thirds of these cases. If milder cases are included, the prevalence rates double. Only age and family history of dementia are consistently associated with AD in all studies, but putative protective agents such as estrogen, NSAIDs, and vitamin E are undergoing clinical trials.
描述性研究和分析性研究。这两种方法都已用于痴呆症和阿尔茨海默病（AD）的研究。北美65岁及以上人群中痴呆症的患病率约为6%至10%，其中AD占这些病例的三分之二。如果包括病情较轻的病例，患病率会翻倍。在所有研究中，只有年龄和痴呆症家族史与AD始终相关，但诸如雌激素、非甾体抗炎药和维生素E等假定的保护剂正在进行临床试验。
