Background:
Limited data exist on the impact of dementia in developing nations, including its association with mortality.
Objective:
The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between dementia and five-year mortality on a community dwelling elderly yoruba population in the developing country of nigeria and to compare those results with those from an elderly african-american community in indianapolis.
Methods:
A two-phase design was used to ascertain dementia status in two sites. in the first phase, the community screening instrument for dementia (csi-d) was administered. in the second phase, subjects were sampled for the clinical assessment according to their csi-d performance category. proportional hazards regression was used to assess the relationship between mortality and cognitive status at both sites after adjusting for demographics and chronic disease conditions.
Results:
For the entire screened population, poor and intermediate performance on the csi-d is associated with increased mortality at both sites; however the effect of csi-d performance did not significantly differ between the two sites. for the clinically assessed sample, dementia was significantly associated with increased mortality at both sites (ibadan rr = 2.83, indianapolis rr = 2.05), but the effect was not significantly different across the two sites.
Conclusion:
Dementia resulted in an increased risk of mortality for yoruba of a magnitude similar to african-americans suggesting that the impact of dementia on mortality risk may be similar for developing and developed countries.