MONDAY, May 21, 2018 (HealthDay News) — The risk of dementia is increased for adults in the lowest versus the highest wealth quintile, according to a study published online May 16 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Dorina Cadar, Ph.D., from University College London, and colleagues examined the correlation of education, wealth, and area-based deprivation with the incidence of dementia using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Outcomes associated with age cohorts were investigated using two independent groups derived using a median split (born between 1902 to 1925 and 1926 to 1943).
Data were included for 6,220 individuals aged 65 years and older enrolled in the study. The researchers found that 7.4 percent of these had new cases of dementia ascertained in the 12 years between 2002 to 2003 and 2014 to 2015. Independent of education, index of multiple deprivation, and health indicators, the risk of developing dementia was significantly increased for those in the lowest versus highest wealth quintile (hazard ratio, 1.68). The risk was also significantly increased for those in the second-highest quintile of index of multiple deprivation versus those in the lowest (least deprived) quintile (hazard ratio, 1.62).
“In an English nationally representative sample, the incidence of dementia appeared to be socioeconomically patterned primarily by the level of wealth,” the authors write.
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