Premium
P2‐207: Prevalence of Family History of Dementia in a Specialist Young‐Onset Dementia Clinic Cohort
Author(s) -
Ting Yang-Lin,
Lim Levinia,
Kandiah Nagaendran,
Lyn Ng Adeline Su
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2016.06.1375
Subject(s) - dementia , family history , cohort , medicine , memory clinic , vascular dementia , frontotemporal dementia , neuropsychology , psychiatry , pediatrics , disease , psychology , cognition
Background:Young-onset dementia (YOD) is defined as dementia occurring before the age of 65. The most common causes include early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and vascular dementia (VAD). Pre-dementia syndromes like mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) are also prevalent in YOD clinics. FTD is known to have the highest rate of family history of dementia (40%), more so than EOAD or VAD. Rates of family history in MCI and SCI have been less studied. This cross-sectional study looked at the prevalence of family history of dementia according to disease subtype in a specialist YOD cohort. Methods: All subjects seen at a specialist YOD clinic at the National Neuroscience Institute, Tan Tock Seng Hospital between 2009 and October 2015 had their clinical charts retrospectively analysed. All available demographic, clinical and neuropsychological data were extracted. Diagnoses of EOAD, FTD, VAD, MCI and SCI were made in accordance with international consensus criteria. All subjects consented for their data to be utilized for research, and the study was approved by the Singhealth institutional review board. Statistical analyses (independent t-test and chi-square test) were performed using SPSS v20. Results: A total of 329 subjects were included in the study. Baseline characteristics according to disease subtype are listed in Table 1. The SCI group (n1⁄456) had the highest proportion of subjects with history of dementia in at least one first-degree relative at 30.4%, higher than the MCI (29.8%), AD (24.0%) and FTD (16.7%) groups. There were no significant demographic differences between SCI subjects with family history of dementia and those without, apart from baseline MMSE scores. SCI subjects with family history had a higher mean score of 29.161.0 vs 27.263.9. Conclusions: Up to 1/3 of SCI subjects had dementia history in a first-degree relative, the highest in our cohort. Whether this is the primary cause for anxiety related to subjective cognitive concerns, or if the neuropsychiatric symptoms are true harbingers of a pre-clinical degenerative illness remain to be determined. SCI patients with family history of dementia should be followed-up closely to monitor for progression to an MCI or AD state.