Dementia More Prevalent in Women Than Men After Age 90

After age 90, dementia becomes more common with age in women but stabilizes in men, a study in Neurology suggests. Among some 900 mostly white, upper-middle-class subjects who were 90 or older, about 41% of women and 28% of men had dementia. Moreover, the odds of dementia in women approximately doubled from ages 90–94 to ages 95 and up, but remained stable in men. Higher education levels correlated with lower dementia rates in women, but not in men. The authors speculate that the discrepancy between men and women might be due to differences in dementia risk factors or in education levels, to a healthy-survivor effect in men, or to a longer duration of survival after dementia diagnosis in women than in men.

Neurology article.