A study on psychosocial risk factors of vascular dementia / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective 　To explore the relationship between psychosocial factors and risk of vascular dementia. Methods　A cohort study of people 55 years old and over were followed up 10 years after a baseline screening. 5055 older subjects in Shanghai were stratified and cluster sampled from community. Information about psychosocial factors was collected during the baseline screening with an interview in 1987. The clinical diagnosis of dementia and vascular dementia (VD) were made according to DSM-Ⅲ-R and Hachinski Ischemic Score (HIS). In 1997,the elders who were not having dementia in 1987 were surveyed; Clinical diagnosis terms of that was made in above mentioned criteria. Then we analyzed the relationship between the psychosocial factors and VD in community elderly population by means of Logistic regression and estimated the incidence of VD.Results　1203 subjects were re-surveyed in 1997 and among them 124 new cases of dementia including 36 cases of VD were identified. By calculating the relative risk (RR) of psychosocial factors to the VD, we found that several psychosocial factors were correlated with the VD including not taking group activities, unsatisfying life, negative life events and depression (RR＞1). ADL total score are also good predictive points for VD.Conclusions　Psychosocial factor may play an important role in the vascular dementia developed.