Men may be at higher risk of developing mild memory impairment which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease than women. The latest study shows that men are up to twice the risk of losing memory and other brain abilities such as planning and performing complicated tasks in their later life.
About half of people suffering a condition known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) develop Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. In MCI an individual has memory or cognitive problems that are more obvious than age-related memory loss, but these memory problems are not as severe as those found in Alzheimer’s.
A team led by Dr Rosebud Roberts from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, carried out a study involving nearly fifteen hundred people, aged between seventy and ninety, who did not suffer from dementia. All the study participants went through memory testing every fifteen months for an average of three years, when three hundred people had developed MCI.
On the whole, they found sixty-four cases of MCI per one thousand, but in men the ratio of MCI was seventy-two per one thousand and in women it was fifty-seven per one thousand. People with less education and who were not married also had higher rates of MCI. The study was published in the medical journal Neurology.
According to study author Dr Rosebud Roberts, these findings are astounding providing women usually have higher rates of dementia than men. The risk of MCI both in men and women was high in this age group of elderly individuals. People are living longer and that MCI may have a huge impact on health care costs if increased efforts at prevention are not used to reduce the risk.
More women get dementia than men. However, this new research shows that more men than women develop a complaint known as frequently an early warning sign of dementia. By the time people get clinical dementia, it may well be too late to treat them, explained Derek Hill, Professor of Medical Imaging Science, University College London.
This study shows MCI is a very complicated mix of factors, and that different types of MCI arise and progress quite differently. This information could be important in improving diagnosis to identify patients who will benefit from current or future treatments, added Prof Hill.
Dr Anne Corbett Research Manager, Alzheimer’s Society, stated increasing their understanding of MCI could help to unravel the several mysteries still surrounding Alzheimer’s disease and move them closer to treatments and a cure. This exciting study adds to earlier substantiation that men could be more vulnerable to MCI than women.
A key goal for research is to identify why some people with MCI develop dementia while others do not. If they can understand why some people have a greater risk for cognitive decline and dementia, they stand a better chance of being able to prevent the condition, stated Dr Marie Janson, Director of Development at Alzheimer’s Research UK.