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Longitudinal studies of cognitive, functional and behavioural change in patients with Alzheimer's disease
Author(s) -
Mohs Richard C.,
Schmeidler James,
Aryan Mosen
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(20000615/30)19:11/12<1401::aid-sim432>3.0.co;2-x
Subject(s) - cognition , longitudinal study , attrition , alzheimer's disease , disease , natural history , longitudinal data , psychology , cognitive impairment , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , computer science , pathology , data mining , dentistry
This paper reviews data on the natural history of symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and describes some of the problems encountered in analysing longitudinal data in this population. Data on cognition, functional ability and psychiatric or behavioural symptoms have all been obtained from AD patients. Because of attrition, the length of follow‐up is not uniform for all patients and neither is the frequency of evaluation. Furthermore, patients enter longitudinal studies with a wide range of symptom severity and longitudinal decline in cognition and function is distinctly non‐linear. Behavioural symptoms do not progress regularly in AD but are episodic phenomena not closely related to cognition or function. Strengths and limitations of various analytic techniques used for hypothesis testing with these longitudinal data are described. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.