Study Identifies Key Factors Associated With Dementia Pathogenesis

Recent research has identified independent predictors of dementia to include age at diagnosis, transient ischemic attack and stroke status, and years of education, with vascular factors playing a greater role in disease pathogenesis than previously thought. Data revealed that age at diagnosis of cognitive decline, status of transient ischemic attack and stroke, and years of education were the most important independent variables. In addition, researchers reported that at best, using unmodified data and a k-nearest neighbors classifier, accurate predictions of executive function were achieved 71.57% of the time, whereas memory function could be accurately predicted 63.73% of the time, MMSE results 62.7% of the time, and Braak stage 32.58% of the time. "These results suggest that vascular factors may play a greater role in dementia pathogenesis than currently thought," the researchers concluded.