Intelectual demand and formal education as cognitive protection factors in Alzheimer's disease.

Unlabelled: To investigate the possible association between educational level and previous professional occupation, and objective cognitive and functional evaluation in a sample of elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Methods: Through retrospective analysis of medical files, 174 patients with probable Alzheimer disease were randomly selected, classified and submitted to analysis according to previous professional occupation and years of formal education.

Results: Subjects with lower education and less intellectually-demanding occupations performed worse than higher educated subjects in all cognitive subtests and on the functional scale.