Resumen

MARTINEZ QUEROL, César; PEREZ MARTINEZ, Víctor T.; CARBALLO PEREZ, Mariola  y  VARONA HERRERA, Gelsis. Epidemiological and clinical study of demential syndrome. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2005, vol.21, n.3-4. ISSN 0864-2125.

A descriptive cross sectional study was undertaken with the geriatric population of "Ana Betancourt" Polyclinic of Playa municipality. 2 139 older adults aged 65 and over were selected. Surveys were done to collect their general data and 2 tools were applied to measure their cognitive capacity: the Mini-Mental Status Examination or Folstein's Test and the Scale  Rating Dementia. In a second phase of the research, a sociodemographic survey was applied to the cases that during the first stage were concluded as possible dementias by using the diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV for  Alzheimer primary degenerative dementia and the criteria summarized by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders of Communication and  Cerebrovascular Accidents and by the Association for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (NINCDS-ADRDA). The number of patients with demential syndrome amounted to 116 aged persons, accounting for a prevalence of 5.42 %. Alzheimer's disease was the most frequent cause with 81 patients (70 %). There was a predominance of the mild clinical form and the age group 80-84 was the most affected. It prevailed among the white elderly with lower intellectual level.

Palabras clave : Cognitive capacity; dementia; Alzheimer; prevalence; criteria.