Perkins AJ, Hui SL, Ogunniyi A, Gureje O, Baiyewu O, Unverzagt FW, Gao S, Hall KS, Musick BS, Hendrie HC.
Risk of mortality for dementia in a developing country: the Yoruba in Nigeria. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry
2002;17:566-573.
Background: Limited data exist on the impact of dementia in developing nations, including its association with mortality.
Objective: The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between dementia and five-year mortality on a community dwelling
elderly Yoruba population in the developing country of Nigeria and to compare those results with those from an elderly
African-American community in Indianapolis.
Methods: A two-phase design was used to ascertain dementia status in two sites. In the first phase, the Community Screening
Instrument for Dementia (CSI-D) was administered. In the second phase, subjects were sampled for the clinical assessment
according to their CSI-D performance category. Proportional hazards regression was used to assess the relationship between
mortality and cognitive status at both sites after adjusting for demographics and chronic disease conditions.
Results: For the entire screened population, poor and intermediate performance on the CSI-D is associated with increased
mortality at both sites; however the effect of CSI-D performance did not significantly differ between the two sites. For the
clinically assessed sample, dementia was significantly associated with increased mortality at both sites (Ibadan RR = 2.83,
Indianapolis RR = 2.05), but the effect was not significantly different across the two sites.
Conclusion: Dementia resulted in an increased risk of mortality for Yoruba of a magnitude similar to African-Americans suggesting
that the impact of dementia on mortality risk may be similar for developing and developed countries.
Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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