No abstract

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent type of dementia. Although the pathobiology of AD is still not understood, certain risk factors have been identified. The most asserted risk factors are age and genetics. Here, the age-adjusted AD mortality in Puerto Rico (PR) and United States (US) from 1999 to 2004 was analyzed, using the Tenth International Classification of Disease coding system. Method The numbers of deaths was obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) multiple cause-of-death public use data files for the United States and Territories (including Puerto Rico) for 1999 to 2004. Deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease (ICD-10 G30) as either the underlying cause-of-death, or as one of the multiple cause-of-death listings in the entity axis format, were used in these analyses. Mortality rates were calculated using data from the US Census Bureau. Results The results showed that while all of causes of deaths had a decreasing tendency in both PR and US, the age-adjusted AD mortality rate increased in both PR and US. However, in PR the AD mortality rate (32.4/100,000; 95% CI 30.4–34.4) was higher than that observed for all US (20.9/100,000). Interestingly, the AD mortality rate of Puerto Ricans living in PR is much higher than Puerto Ricans living in the US (12.1/100,000)(p <.0001). Additionally, females had higher AD mortality rate than males in both PR and the US. Conclusions The results showed an increasing trend in AD mortality rate in both the US and PR. The higher AD mortality rate in PR versus the US could not be solely explained based on genetic factors since Puerto Ricans living in the US had lower AD mortality than those living in PR. Therefore, environmental and socioeconomic differences should be considered as contributing factors.

No abstract

Objective:The Latino/Hispanic community in the United States is at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than other ethnic groups. Specifically, Caribbean Hispanics showed a more severe Alzheimer’s disease symptomatology than any other ethnic group. In a previous study, we demonstrated that the mortality rate associated with Alzheimer’s disease in Puerto Rico is higher than that reported in the United States. Moreover, the mortality rate associated with Alzheimer’s disease was higher among Puerto Rican living in Puerto Rico than those in the mainland United States. There is also a differential geographical distribution of mortality rate associated with Alzheimer’s disease in Puerto Rico, which may be associated with differential socioeconomic status and/or access to healthcare. However, there is no information regarding the clinical profile of Alzheimer’s disease patients in Puerto Rico.Methods:Here, we present the results of a retrospective study directed to profile Alzheimer’s disease patients clustered into two groups based on areas previously determined with low (Metro Region) and high (Northwest-Central Region) mortality rate associated with Alzheimer’s disease in Puerto Rico.Results:Significant difference in the age-at-diagnosis and years of education was found among patients within the two studied regions. Despite these differences, both regions showed comparable levels of initial and last Mini Mental State Examination scores and rate of cognitive decline. Significant difference was also observed in the occurance of co-morbidities associated with Alzheimer’s disease.Conclusions:The differential profile of Alzheimer’s disease patients correlated with differences in socioeconomic status between these two regions, suggesting that covariant associated with social status may contribute to increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Further studies should be conducted to determine the role of socioeconomic factors and healthy living practices as risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.

Let 7r be a non-Desarguesian Semifield plane of order p~, p a prime number > 5 and n _> 3, and let G denote the group induced by the autotopism group G of rr on the line at infinity. We prove that 7r is a generalized twisted field plane if, and only if, G has an element of order (pk _ 1)((pn _ 1)/(pro _ 1)), for some integers k and ra, where k [ m, m ] n, and ra < n.