Cognitive impairment affects more men than women

More than six percent of Americans, aged seventy to eighty-nine years suffer from mild cognitive impairment or MCI according to new information released from the Mayo Clinic. In the report they also state that the data show more men than women are diagnosed with MCI. Education level also appears to have an impact. People with a high school education only are more likely to suffer from the neurological ailment than people with a college degree or higher level of educational achievement.

MCI is an intermediary stage of dysfunction falling between normal forgetfulness associated with age and the more developed dementia requiring intervention, conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.

“While incidence rates for MCI have been reported previously ours is one of the few studies designed specifically to measure the incidence of MCI and its subtypes using published criteria… The statistically significant difference between incidence arêtes among men and women represents an important finding for those evaluating patients for MCI,” said lead author Rosebud O. Roberts, MD, ChB, of the Mayo Clinic.

The research has been published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Among study participants the incidence of MCI was 6.4 percent overall. Among men the incidence rate for 7.2 percent and for women it was 5.7 percent.

“Understanding the distribution of incident MCI by age, sex and other demographic variables is critical to helping us understand the cause of the condition, as well as how to prevent MCI and its progression to full-blown, irreversible dementia. . . This study advances our understanding of MCI and will help clinicians provide even better care for their patients, especially during initial evaluations,” concluded Dr. Roberts.

Source: MedicalNewsToday, Neurology