Comorbidity and Health Habits of Seoul City Elders with Dementia

Associations Among Health Insurance Type, Cardiovascular Risk Factors, and the Risk of Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study in Korea

Due to an aging population, dementia incidence has rapidly increased in South Korea, heaping psychological and economic burdens upon families and the society. This study was aimed at investigating the associations of health insurance type and cardiovascular risk factors with the risk of dementia. The study was performed using data from 15,043 participants aged 60 years and above, enrolled in the Seoul Dementia Management Project in 2008 and followed up until 2012. Factors such as demographic data, health insurance type, lifestyle factors, and cardiovascular risk factors were subjected to Cox proportional hazard regression analysis to identify their associations with dementia incidence. During the follow-up, 495 participants (3.3%) developed dementia. Medical Aid beneficiaries were associated with an increase in the risk of dementia (hazard ratio [HR] 1.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.421–2.215). Upon analyzing a composite cardiovascular risk score derived from all five cardiovascular risk factors, the risk for dementia incidence in participants increased from 1.56 for the presence of three risk factors to 2.55 for that of four risk factors (HR 2.55, 95% CI 1.174–5.546), compared with those who had no risk factors. The Medical Aid beneficiaries of health insurance type and the presence of multiple cardiovascular risk factors were found to be associated with a higher risk of dementia incidence.

[Factors affecting dementia prevalence in people aged 60 or over: a community based cross-sectional study]

PURPOSE

This study was done to examine the association between body mass index (BMI) and any type of clinical dementia.

METHODS

Participants were 60,321 people over 60 years of age enrolled in the Seoul Dementia Management Project in 2011. K-MMSE was used to classify participants as having a cognitive impairment and the Clinical Dementia Rating or DSM-IV by psychiatrists or neurologists to determine whether participants were in the dementia group or the non-dementia group. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and binary logistic regression analysis were performed.

RESULTS

In the univariate analysis, age, education level, living with spouse, BMI, alcohol consumption, and exercise were significantly associated with dementia. In multivariable analysis, increasing age was positively associated with dementia, and educational level was negatively associated with dementia. The exercise group had a lower prevalence of dementia than the non-exercise group. The odds ratio of dementia in the over-weight and obese groups compared to the normal group was 0.85 (95% CI 0.60, 0.98) and 0.64 (95%CI 0.46, 0.75), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Results indicate that dementia is negatively associated with increasing BMI in people aged 60 years or older, but a prospective cohort study is needed to elucidate the causal effect relationship between BMI and dementia.

Public knowledge about dementia in South Korea: a community-based cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

The highest increase in the prevalence of dementia in the elderly population is expected in South Korea than in any other country in the world. However, there is no assessment of the community-based general populations' understanding of dementia in South Korea, in spite of the increasing burden of dementia. Thus, this study assessed the public knowledge about dementia.

METHODS

This is a population-based, cross-sectional study of 2,189 participants, aged 10 years or older, and living in Seoul, South Korea. A 12-item questionnaire with true/false responses was used to assess the knowledge about dementia from June to November 2011. The data obtained were analyzed using quantitative methods.

RESULTS

The mean score for the knowledge about dementia was 9.0 ± 2.1 points out of 12 points. More than half of the respondents (52.7%) reported that dementia is not treatable, and one-third of the participants did not know that Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. The level of dementia knowledge was negatively associated with increasing age, and positively associated with higher education level.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that although laypersons had a fair knowledge about dementia, further educational programs and campaigns are needed to improve knowledge about dementia, more focusing on elderly adults as the target audience and emphasizing the causes and treatments of dementia as educational contents.