Dementia in Latin America: Assessing the present and envisioning the future.

The demographic structure of Latin American countries (LAC) is fast approaching that of developing countries, and the predicted prevalence of dementia in the former already exceeds the latter. Dementia has been declared a global challenge, yet regions around the world show differences in both the nature and magnitude of such a challenge. This article provides evidence and insights on barriers which, if overcome, would enable the harmonization of strategies to tackle the dementia challenge in LAC.

Brain Information Sharing During Visual Short-Term Memory Binding Yields a Memory Biomarker for Familial Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) as a disconnection syndrome which disrupts both brain information sharing and memory binding functions. The extent to which these two phenotypic expressions share pathophysiological mechanisms remains unknown.

Objective: To unveil the electrophysiological correlates of integrative memory impairments in AD towards new memory biomarkers for its prodromal stages.

Feature Binding of Common Everyday Items Is Not Affected by Age.

There is a surge of studies confirming that old age spares the ability to bind in visual working memory (VWM) multiple features within singular object representations. Furthermore, it has been suggested that such ability may also be independent of the cultural background of the assessed individual. However, this evidence has been gathered with tasks that use arbitrary bindings of unfamiliar features.

A transcultural cognitive marker of Alzheimer's Disease.

Objective: Temporary binding (TB) is sensitive and specific to Alzheimer's Disease (AD), is not affected by age, repeated testing or level of education. Hence, TB is useful to assess patients with very different socio-cultural backgrounds. However, the current computerised version of the test is not suitable for use in clinical settings.

Environmental risk factors for dementia: a systematic review.

Background: Dementia risk reduction is a major and growing public health priority. While certain modifiable risk factors for dementia have been identified, there remains a substantial proportion of unexplained risk. There is evidence that environmental risk factors may explain some of this risk.

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Memory Binding Deficits in Patients at Different Risk Levels for Alzheimer's Disease.

Deficits in visual short-term memory (VSTM) binding have been proposed as an early and specific marker for Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, no studies have explored the neural correlates of this domain in clinical categories involving prodromal stages with different risk levels of conversion to AD. We assessed underlying electrophysiological modulations in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), patients in the MCI stages of familial AD carrying the mutation E280A of the presenilin-1 gene (MCI-FAD), and healthy controls.

Interaction between community pharmacists and community nurses in dementia care.

There has been little research that explores the interaction between community pharmacists and community nurses and how this interaction could benefit people affected by dementia. Using information taken from a larger study, this article presents the views of community pharmacists and one community nurse on how their communication, information sharing and team integration may improve care for this patient group. The community pharmacists reported positive attitudes to supporting people affected by dementia, but they highlighted barriers to integrated team working.

Living well with dementia: enhancing dignity and quality of life, using a novel intervention, Dignity Therapy.

Aims And Objectives: To assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential effectiveness of Dignity Therapy to improve the quality of life and reduce psychological and spiritual distress in older people with early stage dementia.

Background: Dementia is a syndrome with several causes that leads to a progressive decline in multiple areas of functioning. The maintenance of dignity and enhancement of quality of life are key elements of care.

Type 2 Diabetes as a Risk Factor for Dementia in Women Compared With Men: A Pooled Analysis of 2.3 Million People Comprising More Than 100,000 Cases of Dementia.

Objective: Type 2 diabetes confers a greater excess risk of cardiovascular disease in women than in men. Diabetes is also a risk factor for dementia, but whether the association is similar in women and men remains unknown. We performed a meta-analysis of unpublished data to estimate the sex-specific relationship between women and men with diabetes with incident dementia.

Use of power of attorney in Scotland.

Background And Aims: Power of Attorney as a form of surrogate decision making was introduced within the Adults with Incapacity, Scotland Act (2000) to help individuals who lack mental capacity due to illnesses like dementia. Even after a decade, little was known if it has been useful. We sought to find out how useful the power of attorney document has been so far in supporting people when they lose their capacity and identify any barriers.

Mild cognitive impairment and deficits in instrumental activities of daily living: a systematic review.

Introduction: There is a growing body of evidence that subtle deficits in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) may be present in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, it is not clear if there are IADL domains that are consistently affected across patients with MCI. In this systematic review, therefore, we aimed to summarize research results regarding the performance of MCI patients in specific IADL (sub)domains compared with persons who are cognitively normal and/or patients with dementia.

Memory binding and white matter integrity in familial Alzheimer's disease.

Binding information in short-term and long-term memory are functions sensitive to Alzheimer's disease. They have been found to be affected in patients who meet criteria for familial Alzheimer's disease due to the mutation E280A of the PSEN1 gene. However, only short-term memory binding has been found to be affected in asymptomatic carriers of this mutation.

Pulmonary function as a risk factor for dementia death: an individual participant meta-analysis of six UK general population cohort studies.

Background: In addition to being associated with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality, lung function has been linked with dementia. However, existing studies typically provide imprecise estimates due to small numbers of outcome events and are based on unrepresentative samples of the general population.

Methods: Individual participant meta-analysis of six cohort studies from the Health Survey for England and the Scottish Health Survey (total N=54 671).

Association Between Psychological Distress and Liver Disease Mortality: A Meta-analysis of Individual Study Participants.

Background & Aims: Risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as obesity and hypertension, have been associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Psychological distress (symptoms of anxiety and depression) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, so it might also be associated, directly or indirectly, with liver disease. We investigated the relationship between psychological distress (measured by the 12-item General Health Questionnaire [GHQ]) and liver disease mortality.

Prediction of general hospital admission in people with dementia: cohort study.

Background: People with dementia are extremely vulnerable in hospital and unscheduled admissions should be avoided if possible.

Aims: To identify any predictors of general hospital admission in people with dementia in a well-characterised national prospective cohort study.

Method: A cohort of 730 persons with dementia was drawn from the Scottish Dementia Research Interest Register (47.

Emotion recognition and cognitive empathy deficits in adolescent offenders revealed by context-sensitive tasks.

Emotion recognition and empathy abilities require the integration of contextual information in real-life scenarios. Previous reports have explored these domains in adolescent offenders (AOs) but have not used tasks that replicate everyday situations. In this study we included ecological measures with different levels of contextual dependence to evaluate emotion recognition and empathy in AOs relative to non-offenders, controlling for the effect of demographic variables.

Height in relation to dementia death: individual participant meta-analysis of 18 UK prospective cohort studies.

Background: That risk factors measured in middle age may not fully explain future dementia risk implicates exposures acting earlier in life. Height may capture early-life illness, adversity, nutrition and psychosocial stress.

Aims: To investigate the little-explored association between height and dementia death.

Dual memory task impairment in E280A presenilin-1 mutation carriers.

Patients with sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) are impaired in their ability to perform two tasks concurrently compared to healthy younger and older adults, despite being able to successfully perform the tasks on their own reasonably well. Dual task impairments have also been found in those individuals with an E280A presenilin-1 genetic mutation but who do not yet meet the criteria for AD. The aim of the current study is to determine whether this dual task deficit is specific to the given combination of tasks performed simultaneously or whether it reflects a general deficit in the ability to coordinate two tasks.

Explaining the excess mortality in Scotland compared with England: pooling of 18 cohort studies.

Background: Mortality in Scotland is higher than in the rest of west and central Europe and is improving more slowly. Relative to England and Wales, the excess is only partially explained by area deprivation. We tested the extent to which sociodemographic, behavioural, anthropometric and biological factors explain the higher mortality in Scotland compared with England.

Psychological distress and risk of peripheral vascular disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm, and heart failure: pooling of sixteen cohort studies.

Objectives: Examine the little-tested relation of psychological distress with peripheral vascular disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm, and heart failure.

Methods: Pooling of raw data from 166,631 male and female participants in 16 UK-based cohort studies. Psychological distress was measured using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire.

Overcoming barriers in cognitive assessment of Alzheimer's disease.

Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires a reliable neuropsychological assessment, but major barriers are still encountered when such tests are used across cultures and during the lifespan. This is particularly problematic in developing countries where most of the available assessment tools have been adapted from developed countries. This represents a major limitation as these tests, although properly translated, may not embody the wealth of challenges that a particular culture poses on cognition.

Attitudes to shared care for patients with dementia: a survey of general practitioners.

Early diagnosis of dementia is important, but implications for care shared between primary and secondary care remain uncertain. We explored attitudes and expectations of Edinburgh's general practitioners (GPs) regarding current sharing of care for dementia. Surveys were distributed to all 335 Edinburgh GPs; 79.