Half of Women Found to Develop Stroke, Dementia, or Parkinson’s

Published on: October 27, 2018

by HealthDay News:

One in 2 women and 1 in 3 men will develop dementia, stroke, or parkinsonism during their lifetime, according to a study published online Oct. 1 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Silvan Licher, from University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues used data from the prospective population-based Rotterdam Study to estimate lifetime risk for dementia, stroke, and parkinsonism during 1990 to 2016 among 12,102 individuals (57.7% women) aged ≥45 years who were free from these diseases at baseline.

The researchers found that during 26 years of follow-up, 1489 individuals were diagnosed with dementia, 1285 with stroke, and 263 with parkinsonism. Of these, 14.6% were diagnosed with multiple diseases. Compared with men, women were almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with both stroke and dementia during their lifetime.

At age 45 years, the lifetime risk for any of these diseases was 48.2% in women and 36.2% in men, with the difference driven by a higher risk for dementia as the first manifesting disease in women compared with men. For stroke and parkinsonism, the risk was similar in men and women.

“Preventive strategies that delay disease onset with 1 to 3 years could theoretically reduce lifetime risk for developing any of these diseases by 20% to 50%,” write the authors.

Source: https://www.clinicaladvisor.com/neurology-information-center/half-of-women-found-to-develop-stroke-dementia-or-parkinsonism/article/810116/