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AlzRisk Paper Detail
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Reference: Schrijvers, 2010
Cohort: Rotterdam Study
Risk Factor: Diabetes Mellitus


Average Follow-up Time Detail
The authors reported associations between fasting glucose and risk of AD separately for three strata of follow-up time, corresponding to:

-"short follow-up" (maximum of 3 years of follow-up from baseline),
-"medium follow-up" (3 to 5.5 years of follow-up from baseline), and
-"long follow-up" (5.5 to 9.7 years of follow-up from baseline)

This row of the table presents results obtained for individuals at risk of incident AD over the "long follow-up" time frame.

Exposure Detail
Fasting glucose (mmol/l) was measured using the glucose hexokinase method.

Persons with a history of diabetes at baseline were excluded. History of diabetes was determined from self-reported use of diabetes medications/treatments, or from general practitioner or past Rotterdam cohort records indicative of a diabetes diagnosis.

"Fasting blood serum was drawn during the examination at the research center. The blood was stored at -80°C in a number of 5-mL aliquots. Glucose levels were measured within 1 week of sampling using the glucose hexokinase method.9"

Ethnicity Detail
All participants were residents of a suburb of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. No other information on ethnicity or race has been reported.

Screening and Diagnosis Detail
Screening Method:
CAMDEXCambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly
GMSGeriatric Mental State Schedule (Copeland 1976)
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: DSM-III R used for total dementia.

"The diagnosis of dementia was made following a 3-step protocol.12 Two brief tests of cognition (Mini- Mental State Examination13 and Geriatric Mental State schedule14 organic level) were used to screen all subjects. Participants with screen-positive results (Mini-Mental State Examination score <26 or Geriatric Mental State organic level >0) underwent the Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly.15 Subjects who were suspected of having dementia were, if necessary, examined by a neuropsychologist. In addition, the total cohort was continuously monitored for incident dementia through computerized linkage between the study database and digitized medical records from general practitioners and the Regional Institute for Outpatient Mental Health Care.12 The diagnoses of dementia and AD were made in accordance with internationally accepted criteria for dementia (DSM-III-R),16 and AD (National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke–Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association),17 by a panel of a neurologist, neuropsychologist, and research physician."

Covariates & Analysis Detail
Analysis Type:
Cox proportional hazards regression

"We added a time-dependent covariate to the model to test the proportionality assumption. Because this assumption was violated, we performed the analyses in 3 different strata according to follow-up time: 1) short follow-up (maximum 3 years), 2) medium follow-up (3–5.5 years), and 3) long follow-up (5.5–9.7 years). Cutoffs were chosen to have approximately equal numbers of incident cases within the follow-up intervals."

This row of the table corresponds to the results obtained for 2566 subjects at risk of incident AD over the "long follow-up" period.

AD Covariates:
Aage
Eeducation
Ggender
APOE4APOE e4 genotype
DBPdiastolic blood pressure
HDLHDL cholesterol
SBPsystolic blood pressure
TGtriglycerides
WCwaist circumference