ST. LOUIS, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- People with fewer years in school may experience a slight but statistically significant delay in realizing they have Alzheimer's disease, a U.S. study said.
Scientists at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reviewed data on 1,449 Alzheimer's patients from their center and 21,880 patients from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center.
"We may have a group of people who are at risk for slightly delayed detection of Alzheimer's disease," lead author Catherine Roe said in a statement. "Early detection of Alzheimer's disease is important as we progress toward treatments and cures because those treatments will need to be applied as early as possible to have the maximum possible benefit."
The new study confirmed patients with 12 years or more of schooling were on average slightly younger when diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease than patients with less than eight years of schooling. Higher levels of education have typically been associated with decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Those with more education may become aware of their symptoms while they are still relatively subtle and seek a specialists' help early on in the disease process, the researchers suggested
The findings appear in the Archives of Neurology.
