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Hannah Sommer

Biology 1615-011

Gregory Wahlert

March 1st, 2017

Signature Assignment: Research Paper Summary

Living life is one of the most important things for us humans. Being able to grow up,

learn, create a family, go on adventures or anything else you imagine doing in order to live life.

There is a disease out there that makes this nearly impossible for some people to be able to

consciously live but not be able to do the everyday things you would image to do. This disease is

called Dementia. Dementia as described by BMC Womens Health involves a chronic

deterioration of intellectual function and other cognitive skills severe enough to interfere with the

ability to perform activities of daily living. Its disease that doesnt just affect the person

themselves. It affects families, friends, caregivers or anyone around or close to that person. There

are a couple different types of this disease but two main types. The most common form would be

Alzheimers disease (AD), which may or may not be one you hear about all the time. One that is

less common but still one of the main forms of dementia is vascular dementia. The definition

given in BMC Womens Health article describes AD as a progressive, inexorable loss of

cognitive function associated with an excessive number of senile plaques in the cerebral cortex

and subcortical gray matter, which also contains amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles consisting

of tau protein. The main difference between the two is stated by Boston Globe, In Alzheimers

disease, nerve cells throughout the brain die off and abnormal proteins accumulate in the brain

for reasons not entirely known. Vascular dementia, in contrast, is the result of impaired blood
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flow to the brain, usually by a series of small, imperceptible strokes. Two different type of

Dementias but both still affect memory and function of the everyday life.

The article I chose Dementia/Alzheimers Disease by Joan Lindsay and Lori Anderson

address the health issue of AD increasing greatly with age starting at the age 65. Lindsay and

Anderson set out to see if dementia does increase with age and which age is most popular for this

disease for both women and men. They set up a control group to figure out if women are more

prone to get dementia and at what age and to see which age it starts decreasing for both men and

women. They will test the risk factors associated along with the mortality rates. In the end, we

will find that according to The Canadian Study of Health and Aging it will show an increase in

the prevalence of dementia with age for both sexes, approximately doubling every five years of

age. We will find out that the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, wine consumption

and past exposure to vaccines decrease the risk of AD. Not only that but physical activity is a

safety net for women and was less clear for men. This being a good reason to promote that

physical activity. The results for Dementia and AD were incredible. It is increasing continuously

and it does affect our daily lives.

There were two methods of studies done for this. One for Data Source and the other for

Data Quality. The data source study is a longitudinal, multi-centre, population-based study that

The Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA) put lots of time and detailed data into.

Currently is the largest study done on Dementia and AD in the world. Designed to mostly focus

on the patterns that are related to the elderly who have or might have Dementia and AD. The

CSHA had multiple phases. Phases that included 10,263 people who were randomly chosen. It

included those ranging from 65 or older, those living in communities and in institutions, both
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men and women. All of these people had many clinicals done and they were all evaluated by

physicians, a psychometrist, and even a neuropsychologist. After the clinicals and evaluations

were completed, they were all put into the following six categories as stated by the CSHA: no

cognitive impairment, cognitive impairment no dementia, AD, vascular dementia, other specific

dementia, and unclassifiable dementia. The CSHAs main focus was on the people who were

found to have Dementia or AD for three years or less or those who were proven to have no signs

of being diagnosed with Dementia or AD. A close eye was kept on these people by their

caregivers. Interviews were made and risk factors were tested. They were follow up on to

measure changes after five years. The Data Quality was higher for the CSHA. The data quality

involved the tests that were done by all the doctors and the results that came back was higher

than expected. CSHA stated in their article that All questionnaires were thoroughly checked and

coded; data were double-entered until an error rate of less than 1 per 1,000 variables was

reached.

After the study was completed, I was surprised at how many of the seniors ended up

suffering from dementia, over a quarter million of the seniors. In numbers, that is a total of

252,600 seniors with dementia and more women than men. More than half the people in

institutions suffering from dementia. As projected, dementia increased significantly as those got

older. From the results, the CSHA was able to point out some prospective risk factors for AD

and dementia. The most significant risk factor coming from genetics and lower educational

levels, and age as mentioned before. Those with a head injury had a higher risk but then those

with arthritis had a lower risk. The one risk factor they could not rule out was the sex. Although,
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it is mentioned in their are currently prospective studies being done in Europe that have ruled

that the female sex could be a possible risk factor starting after the age 85 or 90.

This study shows just how much Ad and Dementia can affect you and your everyday life

as well as the people who are around you. With the brain activity needed for everyday activities,

this disease kills off brain cells and slows/stops blood flow to the brain making these everyday

activities impossible by the end. There are still studies being done about Dementia and AD but

this one shows the amount of number that Dementia and AD effect are greater than thought.
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Sources

Lindsay, Joan, and Lori Anderson. "Dementia / Alzheimer's Disease." BMC Women's Health.

BioMed Central, 25 Aug. 2004. Web. 29 Mar. 2017.