Alzheimer's disease first symptoms are age dependent: Evidence from the NACC dataset.
Barnes, Josephine;
Dickerson, Bradford C;
Frost, Chris;
Jiskoot, Lize C;
Wolk, David;
van der Flier, Wiesje M;
(2015)
Alzheimer's disease first symptoms are age dependent: Evidence from the NACC dataset.
Alzheimer's & dementia, 11 (11).
pp. 1349-1357.
ISSN 1552-5260
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2014.12.007
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INTRODUCTION: Determining the relationship between age and Alzheimer's disease (AD) presentation is important to improve understanding and provide better patient services. METHODS: We used AD patient data (N = 7815) from the National Alzheimer Coordinating Center database and multinomial logistic regression to investigate presentation age and first cognitive/behavioral symptoms. RESULTS: The odds of having a nonmemory first cognitive symptom (including impairment in judgment and problem solving, language, and visuospatial function) increased with younger age (P < .001, all tests). Compared with apathy/withdrawal, the odds of having depression and "other" behavioral symptoms increased with younger age (P < .02, both tests), whereas the odds of having psychosis and no behavioral symptom increased with older age (P < .001, both tests). DISCUSSION: There is considerable heterogeneity in the first cognitive/behavioral symptoms experienced by AD patients. Proportions of these symptoms change with age with patients experiencing increasing nonmemory cognitive symptoms and more behavioral symptoms at younger ages.