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DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1605825
Mortality in incident cognitive impairment – Results of the prospective AgeCoDe study
Publikationsverlauf
Publikationsdatum:
01. September 2017 (online)
Objective:
In this study, we aimed at investigating mortality risk in new – incident – cases of cognitive impairment (CI) in a large general practice (GP) patients sample aged 75+ years.
Methods:
Data were derived from the longitudinal German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe). We used the Kaplan-Meier survival method to estimate survival times of individuals with and without incident CI and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regressions to assess the association between CI and mortality risk, controlled for covariates.
Results:
Out of the 2,089 included patients at follow-up I, 859 (41.1%) died during the subsequent mean observation period of 8.0 years. Patients with incident CI at follow-up I showed a significantly higher case-fatality rate per 1,000 person-years (74.2, 95%-CI = 64.2 – 84.2 vs. 47.8, 95%-CI = 44.6 – 51.0) and a significantly shorter mean survival time in the observation period than those without (7.8 vs. 9.1 years; P< 0.001). The association between incident CI and mortality remained significant in the multivariable Cox analyses – incident CI was associated with a 42% increased, incident severe CI with a 75% increased mortality risk.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest an elevated mortality risk in newly acquired cognitive deficits in old age. Even though further studies are required to analyze potential underlying mechanisms, our findings support the notion that such cognitive deficits should be taken seriously in clinical practice not only for an increased risk of developing dementia but also for a broader range of possible adverse health outcomes.