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AlzRisk Paper Detail
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Reference: Ravaglia, 2005
Cohort: Conselice Study of Brain Aging
Risk Factor: Homocysteine


Average Follow-up Time Detail
"Mean follow-up time was 3.8 ± 0.8 y."

Exposure Detail
Because of plasma tHcy highly skewed distribution, the use of natural log-transformed values was provided for the analyses.

"The overall geometric mean plasma tHcy concentration was 13.0 (95%CI: 6.3-26.9) µmol/L and ranged from 5.5 to 80 µmol/L. Hyperhomocystenemia was present in 26.6% of the subjects."

Ethnicity Detail
Italian population

Age Detail
Mean age was 72.6 ± 5.7 y for normal plasma tHcy (≤15 µmol/L, n=599). Mean age was 76.1 ± 7.2 y for hyperhomocysteinemia (>15 µmol/L, n=217).

Screening and Diagnosis Detail
Screening Method:
MMSEMini-Mental State Examination (Folstein 1975)

AD Diagnosis:
NINCDS ADRDA National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Diseases and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association Criteria (McKhann 1984)

Total dementia definition: "Dementia was defined on the basis of the clinical criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition."

"AD was diagnosed on the basis of NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for probable or possible AD."

Covariates & Analysis Detail
Analysis Type:
Cox proportional hazards regression

"Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the relation between homocysteine (both as a categorical and logtransformed continuous variable) and the incidence of dementia and AD during follow-up, after adjustment for age (in 1-y increment), sex, education, APOE genotype, serum creatinine, B vitamins concentrations (both as categorical and log-transformed continuous variables), and history of stroke. In supplementary analyses, we also adjusted for other potential confounders. For the analyses of incident AD cases, subjects developing other types of dementia were censored at the date of dementia onset (estimated as the midpoint of the time interval from the baseline study until follow-up or death)."

AD Covariates:
Aage
Eeducation
Ggender
APOE4APOE e4 genotype
BMIbody mass index
CVDcardiovascular disease
DMdiabetes mellitus
HTNhypertension
CRTserum creatinine
FOLserum folate
SMsmoking status
SHstroke history
VTBvitamin B12

TD Covariates:
Aage
Eeducation
Ggender
APOE4APOE e4 genotype
BMIbody mass index
CVDcardiovascular disease
DMdiabetes mellitus
HTNhypertension
CRTserum creatinine
FOLserum folate
SMsmoking status
SHstroke history
VTBvitamin B12