Cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly people living in rural Benin, west Africa.

Maëlenn Guerchet (1) , Dismand Stephan Houinato (1, 2) , Moussiliou Noël Paraïso (1) , Nicolas von Ahsen , Philippe Nubukpo (1, 3, 4) , Markus Otto , Jean-Pierre Clément (1, 4, 5) , Pierre-Marie Preux (1, 6, 7) , Jean-François Dartigues (8)

1 NETEC - Neuroépidémiologie Tropicale et Comparée
2 Unité d'Enseignement et de Recherche de Neurologie
3 Hôpital Psychiatrique La Valette
4 CMRR Limoges - Centre de Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherches [Limoges]
5 Service de Psychiatrie [CHU Limoges]
6 SIME - Service de l'Information Médicale et de l'Évaluation [CHU Limoges]
7 Laboratoire de Biostatistique et d'Informatique Médicale
8 Epidémiologie et Biostatistique [Bordeaux]

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Dementia is increasing as a priority public health problem because of the ageing of the world population. Our goal was to estimate dementia and cognitive impairment prevalence in an elderly population of rural Benin. METHODS: In a door-to-door survey, elderly people aged 65 years and above were screened using the Community Screening Interview for Dementia and the Five-Word Test. RESULTS: The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 10.4% and that of dementia was 2.6%. Age, current depressive disorder and absence of the APOE epsilon2 allele were significantly associated with cognitive impairment. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment appears to be lower in this study than in developed countries.

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Maëlenn Guerchet, Dismand Stephan Houinato, Moussiliou Noël Paraïso, Nicolas von Ahsen, Philippe Nubukpo, et al.. Cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly people living in rural Benin, west Africa.. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 2009, 27 (1), pp.34-41. ⟨10.1159/000188661⟩. ⟨hal-00374773⟩