Losonczy K G, White L R, Brock D B
Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry Program, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-9205, USA.
Public Health Rep. 1998 May-Jun;113(3):273-80.
To estimate the prevalence and correlates of dementia at death and to assess the usefulness of death certificate data in the reporting of dementia.
The authors analyzed next-of-kin interviews for 599 male and 628 female decedents using data from the National Institute on Aging's Survey of the Last Days of Life.
Death certificate data in this population show the prevalence of dementia to be less than 1%, consistent with previous reports based on death certificates but a substantial underestimate compared to the 11.9% reported in a national survey. Using a dementia index based on the informant's report of whether the decedent had been diagnosed with a dementing illness and the extent of her or his cognitive and functional limitations, this study found a prevalence of dementia of 8.5%. A high score on the dementia index was significantly associated with older age, Parkinson's disease, and incontinence. Lower relative odds for dementia at death were found for people with either a lifetime history or a death certificate report of cancer. Similarly, people with a lifetime history of coronary heart disease were found to have lower relative odds for dementia at death.
These results suggest that informant interviews may be a useful source of data to examine factors associated with dementia and to estimate the prevalence of dementia in the last year of life.
评估死亡时痴呆症的患病率及其相关因素，并评估死亡证明数据在痴呆症报告中的作用。
作者利用美国国立衰老研究所临终调查的数据，对599名男性和628名女性死者的近亲访谈进行了分析。
该人群的死亡证明数据显示痴呆症患病率低于1%，这与之前基于死亡证明的报告一致，但与一项全国性调查中报告的11.9%相比，存在严重低估。基于信息提供者关于死者是否被诊断患有痴呆症疾病及其认知和功能受限程度的报告建立痴呆症指数，本研究发现痴呆症患病率为8.5%。痴呆症指数得分高与年龄较大、帕金森病和大小便失禁显著相关。有癌症终生病史或死亡证明报告的人，死亡时患痴呆症的相对几率较低。同样，有冠心病终生病史的人死亡时患痴呆症的相对几率也较低。
这些结果表明，信息提供者访谈可能是一个有用的数据来源，可用于研究与痴呆症相关的因素，并估计生命最后一年的痴呆症患病率。
