By IANS,
Washington : When it comes to remembering things, elderly men are more likely than women to falter, a new study has found.
A study of 2,050 people between the ages of 70 and 89 who were interviewed, examined and given cognitive tests found that some 15 percent of the group had mild cognitive impairment.
This condition, described as impairment in memory or other thinking skills beyond what is expected for a person’s age and education, marks the beginning of the transition to dementia.
The study found men were one-and-a-half times more likely to have mild cognitive impairment than women. The finding remained the same regardless of a man’s education or marital status.
“This is one of the first studies to determine the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment among men and women who have been randomly selected from a community to participate in the study,” said the study’s author Rosebud Roberts of Mayo Clinic.
The findings of the study have been presented at the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago.
“These findings are in contrast to studies which have found more women than men (or an equal proportion) have dementia, and suggest there’s a delayed progression to dementia in men,” said Roberts.
“Alternately, women may develop dementia at a faster rate than men.”