Psychiatry Research EG

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has come to represent a transitional state between the cognitive changes of aging and the earliest clinical features of dementia in which a person has problems with memory, language, or other essential cognitive functions that are severe enough to be noticeable to others and show up on tests but not severe enough to interfere with daily life [1]. Data on the prevalence and incidence of MCI vary considerably according to cultural difference [2]. Several studies report that people with MCI are about twice as likely to die over the next several years as people without cognitive impairment [3]. MCI is now known to be a high-risk state or even prodrome of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [4,5]. People with MCI develop dementia at a rate of 10–15% per year, whereas the rate for healthy controls is 1–2% per year [6]. Because of the development of therapies with diseasemodifying properties, the identification of patients in the preclinical stages of AD is of utmost importance, as these interventions will be more effective if started at such stages when the pathological changes are not far advanced [7]. Therefore, knowledge of MCI epidemiology at the population level is of importance. The aim of this study was to detect the prevalence of MCI among nondemented older adults in Mansoura city, Egypt.