High Prevalence of Dementia in a Caribbean Population

Abstract

Background/Aims: People in Caribbean countries are thought to be at particularly high risk for dementia. Basic descriptive epidemiology of dementia is required for populations in the region to determine the validity of this hypothesis. The main objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence, types and severity of dementia among elderly people (≥55 years old) in an urban area on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, and to determine the gender and age distribution of affected people. Methods: The population-based Maracaibo Aging Study included 3,657 subjects, all of whom underwent a standardized, in-person interview. 2,438 of these subjects underwent neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric, cardiovascular and nutritional assessment. Results: The overall prevalence rate of dementia in elderly subjects was 8.04% and was not significantly different for women and men. Alzheimer’s disease was the most frequent type of dementia (50%), followed by vascular dementia (27%). Of all cases of dementia, 41.84% were ranked as mild, 30.10% as moderate and 28.06% as severe. Conclusion: The prevalence of dementia in elderly people from the Caribbean coast of Venezuela is much higher than frequencies previously reported for developing countries.

Estimate of Dementia Prevalence in a Community Sample from São Paulo, Brazil

“…Other community-based studies of dementia prevalence in Latin American countries were published in the last few years, such as a recent study from Venezuela [29] , reporting rates of 8.0% for subjects 55 years and older, and 13.2% for those 65 years and older. Another study was conducted in Cuba [30] , with a prevalence rate of 8.2-11.2%, considering 60-year-old or older subjects.…”

The Prevalence, Correlates and Impact of Dementia in Cuba

“…An investigation in Kashmir that used a similar methodology identified no cases of dementia [45] . The highest age-and gender-standardized prevalences were recorded in two 1-phase studies; from Marianao, Cuba [10] , and Maracaibo, Venezuela [7] . For Maracaibo, this may be explained partly by the outcome definition, CDR [19] of at least mild severity.…”

“…Such evidence has been lacking in many world regions and has been patchy in others, with few studies and widely varying estimates [1] . In Latin America, new data on the prevalence of dementia have recently become available from studies in Brazil [5,6] and Venezuela [7] . There are also publications in Spanish relating to surveys conducted in the 1990s in Colombia [8] , Uruguay [9] and Cuba [10] , and a conference abstract describing a survey from the same period in Chile [11] .…”

Prevalence of Dementia and Its Associated Factors in Cotonou Teaching Hospital, Benin

“…This result is close to 8.1% obtained by Mbelesso et al [8] in a cross-sectional research conducted in the 3 rd district of Bangui (Central African Republic) in 2012, on dementia epidemiology in elderly population. Similarly, Molero et al [9] recorded in 2007 a prevalence of 10.3% in a re- First of all, in Uwakwe R. et al [10] research, patients were aged 65 and above and the sample was made up of 1238 patients who went through 10/66 protocol; knowing that the specificity and sensitivity of such a protocol are higher than those of MMSE we implemented. The same goes with Ndiaye et al [11] who utilized in their research Senegal Test, which sensitivity and specificity are higher than those of MMSE.…”