Objective: To explore the relationship between psychosocial factor and risk of Alzheimer's disease(AD).
Methods: A cohort study of people 55 years and older was followed up 10 years after a baseline screening. 5,055 elderly subjects in a district of Shanghai were stratified clustering sampled from community. Information about psychosocial factors was collected in 1987. The clinical diagnoses of dementia and AD were made according to DSM-III-R and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. 4,896 non-demented persons were followed in 1997. The incidence of AD was calculated and the relationship between the psychosocial factors and the AD was analyzed by Logistic model.
Results: 1,203 subjects were resurveyed in 1997 and among them 124 new cases of dementia including 81 cases of AD were identified. By computing the relative risk(RR) of psychosocial factors to the AD, many psychosocial factors were found to be correlated with AD including blue collar occupation, no job, no reading or writing, no taking community activities, no gardening in leisure, bad psychological feeling and lower education (RR > 1). The items with high PARP > 50% were not working, no job, retirement, no taking community activities, no reading or writing, blue collar occupation and no gardening in leisure. MMSE total score is a good predict for AD.
Conclusion: Psychosocial factors play an important role in the development of Alzheimer's disease.