A Reevaluation of the Duration of Survival after the Onset of Dementia

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 344; no. 15; pp. 1111 - 1116
• Main Authors: Wolfson, Christina, Wolfson, David B, Asgharian, Masoud, M'Lan, Cyr Emile, Østbye, Truls, Rockwood, Kenneth, Hogan, D.B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 12.04.2001
• Subjects: Age of Onset; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - mortality; Analysis. Health state; Bias; Biological and medical sciences; Canada - epidemiology; Dementia; Dementia, Vascular - mortality; Educational Status; Epidemiology; Female; Follow-Up Studies; General aspects; Humans; Life Expectancy; Male; Medical research; Medical sciences; Older people; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Random Allocation; Survival Analysis; Human; Disease development; Nervous system diseases; Vascular dementia; Prognosis; Alzheimer disease; Mortality; Duration; Epidemiology; Survival; Cerebral disorder; Central nervous system disease; Degenerative disease; Elderly
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM200104123441501

Dementia shortens life expectancy: estimates of median survival from the onset of symptoms vary from 5 years (range, 1 to 13) 1 to 9.3 years (range, 1.8 to 16 or more). 2 These estimates are based on the follow-up of persons who had dementia at the time of the study; however, this approach can lead to an underestimation of the deleterious effects of dementia because of the failure to include persons with rapidly progressive disease who died before they could be included in the study. 3 , 4 This type of bias is referred to as length bias. 3 , 4 Most studies of the duration . . .