Publication year: 2011 Source: European Psychiatry, Available online 15 September 2011 R. Heun, D. Schoepf, R. Potluri, A. Natalwala BackgroundSubjects with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have to be sufficiently healthy to live long enough to experience and to be diagnosed with dementia in later life. In contrast, neurodegeneration and cognitive deficits in AD may increase the frequency of co-morbid disorders and their possible influence on mortality. Consequently, we investigated whether the pattern of co-morbidity and its relevance for later death differed between hospitalized AD and age-matched controls subjects.MethodsCo-morbid diseases with a prevalence of more than 1% at hospital admission were compared between 634 hospitalized AD and 72,244 control subjects aged above 70 years admitted to the University of Birmingham NHS Trust between 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2007.
Alzheimer’s disease and co-morbidity: Increased prevalence and possible risk factors of excess mortality in a naturalistic 7-year follow-up
Publication year: 2011 Source: European Psychiatry, Available online 15 September 2011 R. Heun, D. Schoepf, R. Potluri, A. Natalwala BackgroundSubjects with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have to be sufficiently healthy to live long enough to experience and to be diagnosed with dementia in later life. In contrast, neurodegeneration and cognitive deficits in AD may increase the frequency of co-morbid disorders and their possible influence on mortality. Consequently, we investigated whether the pattern of co-morbidity and its relevance for later death differed between hospitalized AD and age-matched controls subjects.MethodsCo-morbid diseases with a prevalence of more than 1% at hospital admission were compared between 634 hospitalized AD and 72,244 control subjects aged above 70 years admitted to the University of Birmingham NHS Trust between 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2007.