Dementia is more frequent in women

Abstract

Dementia is a syndrome of global and progressive impairment of acquired cognitive abilities with preserved consciousness caused by an organic illness of the central nervous system with especially pronounced damage to the ability to memorise, learn, think abstractly, orientate, and perceive spatial relations. The prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is considerably greater in women than in men, and that difference increases with age. The fact that AD occurs twice as often in women than in men may be partially explained by a longer life expectancy among women. Women show worse cognitive performance on numerous neuropsychological tests in comparison to men during the same stage of the disease, meaning that multiple cognitive functions are more widely and severely impaired in women than in men. Possible reasons for such unfavourable results among women are a reduction of oestrogen during post-menopause, larger cognitive reserves in men, and the influence ofapolipoprotein E. Certain biological factors may also explain various clinical manifestations of AD regarding sex. Apart from the fact that, according to presented data, women develop AD more often than men, women are also those who offer informal care to people with dementia in much greater numbers, and almost two thirds of informal caregivers are women. In conclusion, further research and clinical work with AD should certainly pay attention to insights about sex differences in the development and progression of this disease.