Differences Between Women and Men in Incidence Rates of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Article type: Short Communication

Authors: Beam, Christopher R.^{a; *} | Kaneshiro, Cody^{a; 1} | Jang, Jung Yun^a | Reynolds, Chandra A.^b | Pedersen, Nancy L.^{a; c} | Gatz, Margaret^{a; c}

Affiliations: [a] University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA | [b] University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA | [c] Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Christopher R. Beam, PhD, Department of Psychology, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, 3620 McClintock Ave, SGM 501, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, USA. Tel.: +1 213 740 0726; E-mail: beamc@usc.edu.

Note: [1] Now at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

Abstract: In the following brief report, we examined gender differences in incidence rates of any dementia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) alone, and non-Alzheimer’s dementia alone in 16,926 women and men in the Swedish Twin Registry aged 65+. Dementia diagnoses were based on clinical workup and national health registry linkage. Incidence rates of any dementia and AD were greater in women than men, with any dementia rates diverging after age 85 and AD rates diverging around 80. This pattern is consistent with women’s survival to older ages compared to men. These findings are similar to incidence rates reported in other Swedish samples.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, any dementia, gender differences, incidence, Swedish Twin Registry

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-180141

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 1077-1083, 2018