Environmental risk factors for Alzheimer's disease: their relationship to age of onset and to familial or sporadic types

Psychol Med. 1992 May;22(2):429-36. doi: 10.1017/s0033291700030373.

Abstract

Data from a case-control study of Alzheimer's disease (AD) were analysed in relation to age of onset and familial/sporadic status. The analyses were restricted to environmental exposures which might injure the brain. Later-onset AD was found to be positively associated with starvation/malnutrition and with nose-picking and negatively with analgesics, while earlier-onset was associated with physical underactivity and nervous breakdown more than 10 years before. Sporadic AD was associated with starvation/malnutrition and with head injury. These analyses merit replication in other large case-control studies of AD.

MeSH terms

  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis
  • Alzheimer Disease / etiology*
  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics
  • Brain Damage, Chronic / diagnosis
  • Brain Damage, Chronic / etiology
  • Brain Damage, Chronic / genetics
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Environmental Exposure*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Risk Factors
  • Social Environment*