Risk factors for dementia of the Alzheimer and vascular type.

The current study was aimed at examining the risk factors in 30 patients with Alzheimer's dementia and 30 patients with vascular dementia. The reports of the caregivers and the medical documentation were used to estimate the risk factors. The condition for the patients to enter this study was the age above 60 years. The results showed that the average age in the patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type was statistically significantly higher than in the patients with vascular dementia (p<0.0043), which is the confirmation that the most potential risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is aging, and for vascular dementia it is an additional factor. The incomplete education is more common in patients with Alzheimer's disease than in the group with vascular dementia and the difference had statistical significance (p=0.0199). The patients with vascular dementia have higher rate of heart disease (p=0.0002), hypertension (p=0.0005) and diabetes mellitus (p=0.0228) than in the group with Alzheimer's disease with a statistically significant difference. In regard to marital status, head injury and smoking, the difference had no significance in either groups.