Purpose: Twice out off three, patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are aged 80 and older. Very old patients are more frail, have social precariousness and have often polypathology. Few data are available about these elderly patients. The aim of our study was to analyse characteristics of AD patients aged 80 and older.
Material and methods: This is a prospective, multicentric French study (REAL.FR) of a cohort of ambulatory AD patients, with Mini-Mental State values between 10 and 26. Clinical and social data at inclusion of patients aged 80 and older and patients younger were compared.
Results: Six hundred eighty nine patients (488 women, 201 men) were included between April 2000 and June 2002. The mean age was 77.8 +/- 6.9 years. Two hundred sixty four patients (38%) were aged 80 and older. Those patients were more dependant for Activities of Daily Living (ADL) than younger patients (ADL score of Katz: 5.2 +/- 1.07 et 5.6 +/- 0.74 respectively; p < 0.001 and IADL (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) score of Lawton: 7.3 +/- 3.57 et 9.3 +/- 1.57 respectively; p < 0.001). Duration of evolution of the disease were comparable between older and younger patients.
Conclusion: In our cohort, AD patients aged 80 and older had a weakest autonomy for the ADL than younger patients with the same stage of the disease. Results has implications on care. Following the cohort will permit to specify evolution of data.