Alzheimer's increases risk of death

CHICAGO, June 10 (UPI) -- Alzheimer's disease may be associated with an increased risk of death among both white and African-American older adults, U.S. researchers said.

Lead author Robert Wilson of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago said data from two earlier national surveys have suggested that life expectancy among patients with Alzheimer's disease may be greater for African-Americans than for whites.

"In these surveys, the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is not based on a uniform clinical evaluation but derived from medical records, which increases the likelihood of substantial variation in the quality of diagnostic classifications," Wilson said in a statement.

A total of 1,715 older adults -- average age 80.1 of which 52.5 percent were African-American -- each had a clinical evaluation that included medical history, a neurological examination and cognitive function testing, which analyzed thinking, learning and memory.

An experienced physician diagnosed 17.3 percent of participants with Alzheimer's disease, 34.8 percent with mild cognitive impairment and 1.2. percent with other forms of dementia, while 46.8 percent had no cognitive impairment.

"Compared with people without cognitive impairment, risk of death was increased by about 50 percent among those with mild cognitive impairment and was nearly three-fold greater among those with Alzheimer's disease," Wilson said in a statement.

"These effects were seen among African Americans and whites and did not differ by race."

The finding were June issue of Archives of Neurology.