Objective– To investigate the immediate causes of death, in autopsied demented and non‐demented elderly. Design– Retrospective clinicopathologic correlations. Setting– Acute and intermediate care geriatric hospital. Participants– 342 hospitalized demented and non‐demented elderly (mean age 84.94±6.9 years) who underwent consecutive post‐mortem examinations: 120 demented patients with either vascular dementia (VaD, n=34), mixed dementia (MD, n=65) or Alzheimer's disease (AD, n=21) neuropathologically confirmed and 222 non‐demented elderly. Results– Primary causes of death were similar in both demented and non‐demented patients; the commonest were cardiovascular disease and bronchopneumonia. Cardiac causes of death and especially cardiac failure were more frequent in VaD than in AD or MD (respectively P=0.027 and 0.005). Dementia was an underlying but never a primary cause of death. Conclusions– Immediate causes of death are similar in elderly demented and non‐demented patients.

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