Affiliations: [a]
Beijing Tibetan Hospital, China Tibet-ology Research Center, Beijing, P.R. China | [b]
Beijing Mentougou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, P.R. China | [c]
Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, P.R. China
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Fukai Huang, Beijing Tibetan Hospital, China Tibet-ology Research Center, Beijing 100029, P.R. China. Tel.: +86 18810799120; Fax: +86 010 64933159; E-mail: fkhuang119@sina.com.
Note: [1] These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract: Background:The prevalence of dementia differs among racial groups, the highest prevalence being in Latin America (8.5%) compared to sub-Saharan African regions (2–4%). The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Objective:To estimate the prevalence of AD in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and to investigate the related factors. Methods:This was a cross-sectional, multistage cluster sampling design survey. Data was collected from May 2014 to September 2014 from 4,060 Tibetan aged >60 years. Participants underwent clinical examinations and neuropsychological evaluations. MALDI-TOF was used to test the genotypes of CLU, TFAM, TP53INP1, IGHV1-67, CR1, ApoE, and BIN1. Logistic regression models were used to ascertain the associations with AD. Results:The prevalence of AD among Tibetan individuals aged >60 years was 1.33% (95% CI: 0.98–1.69). The CLU haplotypes AA+GA (odds ratio (OR) = 4.483; 95% CI: 1.069–18.792) of rs2279590 was correlated with AD. The CLU haplotypes GG+GC (OR = 0.184; 95% CI: 0.038–0.888) of rs9331888 and kowtow (OR = 0.203; 95% CI 0.046–0.896) were negatively correlated with AD. Conclusion:A low prevalence of AD was found in Tibetans from the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Multivariate analysis might suggest that regular “mind-body” religious meditative activities may be negatively associated with AD in this population, as well as the CLU genotype at rs9331888.
