WEDNESDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Not as many men as women
make it to their 90s or beyond, but those who do have an advantage
over their female counterparts: Researchers found that males aged
90 and older are more likely to avoid dementia than women of
similar age.
There's no clear reason for the striking discrepancy, according
to the study, which found signs of senility in a full 45 percent of
women aged 90 and older from a southern California retirement
community. Men weren't immune to mental decline, however, since 28
percent of them also suffered from dementia.
Still, "given the increasing number of people (aged 90 and
older) this can become a fairly big public health problem," said
study lead author Maria Corrada, an assistant adjunct professor of
neurology at the University of California, Irvine. "We need to be
prepared for that. Dementia requires a lot of care, and a lot of
money needs to be spent on caring for these people."
Dementia -- also known as senility -- refers to the mental
confusion that can strike the elderly. Alzheimer's disease, stroke
and brain injuries can lead to the condition, although the cause is
sometimes unknown.
Researchers know little about how senility affects the so-called
"oldest old" -- people 90 and older. There are now an estimated two
million American in this age group and that number is projected to
grow substantially as the population ages.
In the new study, the researchers examined a survey of 911 men
and women over the age of 90 between 2003 and 2006. In the 1980s,
all the participants had lived in the Leisure Village retirement
community in Orange County, Calif., and took part in another study
at that time.
Two-thirds of the participants were women and most were white,
upper-middle class and well-educated. In some cases, the
researchers interviewed them by phone or in person; in others,
researchers talked to someone else, such as a relative or
caregiver.
The study findings were published online July 2 in the journal
Neurology.
Why the discrepancy between the genders in terms of dementia
risk? Although the study didn't look at when the participants
started showing signs of senility, it's possible that women may
simply live longer with the condition than men, Corrada said.
Women, after all, live longer than men in general.
It's also possible that men who manage to reach the age of 90
have "the best protoplasm," said William Thies, vice president for
medical and scientific affairs with the Alzheimer's Association. In
other words, men have to be in pretty good shape to make it that
far.
Corrada and her colleagues also found that women with higher
levels of education were less likely to show signs of senility.
More education didn't seem to have any effect in men, however.
"Education may mean something different for men and women in
this age group," Corrada said.
Other research has linked education to brain health, Corrada
added. "People who have more education and more intellectual
attainment in their lives are less likely to become demented," she
said. "That may be simply because they start out so much better
than everyone else (brain-wise) that they can cope better" with
aging.
More information
Learn more about dementia from the
American Academy of Family Physicians.
