This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

J. Galen Buckwalter, PhD; Eugene Sobel, PhD; Meleana E. Dunn; Marie M. Diz; Victor W. Henderson, MD

Arch Neurol. 1993;50(7):757-760.

Abstract
• Objective.
—We evaluated scores on a brief psychometric screening instrument—the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)—for possible effects of gender, hypothesizing that women with Alzheimer's disease (AD) would perform more poorly than men. A significant gender difference was to be explored with post hoc item analyses.

Design.
—Case-study design. A hierarchical regression procedure controlled for the possible influence on MMSE performance of demographic variables (eg, age, duration of dementia symptoms, education, and family history of dementia) before the effect of gender was analyzed.

Setting.
—Data were gathered by trained neuropsychological examiners from subjects enrolled in the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Subjects.
—One hundred forty-two subjects who met strict criteria for probable AD and 121 nondemented elderly subjects were included in the study. All subjects underwent periodic neuropsychological testing. We extracted MMSE scores and demographic data to test the hypothesis that women would perform more poorly than men on the MMSE.

Criterion Measure.
—The MMSE was chosen because of its wide use in clinical and research settings to screen for the presence or severity of dementia.

Results.
—After controlling for the demographic variables for subjects with AD, we observed a significant difference in the predicted direction for total MMSE score, but there was no significant gender effect on the MMSE for the nondemented elderly sample. Among subjects with AD, gender-associated differences were limited to only a subset of MMSE items.

Conclusions.
—Results imply that MMSE performance may differ between men and women with AD and that differences might pertain only to discrete areas of cognitive functioning. Although gender effects were relatively small, findings indicate the relevance of gender to studies of AD.

Author Affiliations
From the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (Drs Buckwalter and Henderson and Ms Diz); the Departments of Preventive Medicine (Dr Sobel and Ms Dunn), Neurology (Divisions of Cognitive Neuroscience and Neurogerontology [Drs Sobel and Henderson] and Neuroepidemiology [Dr Sobel]), and Psychology (Dr Henderson); and the Program in Neural, Informational, and Behavioral Sciences (Dr Henderson), University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication December 8, 1992.

Reprint requests to the Department of Neurology (GNH-5641), University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90033-1084 (Dr Henderson).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Differences in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Patterns in Male versus Female Patients with Alzheimer Disease
Hanyu et al.
Am. J. Neuroradiol. 2004;25:1199-1204.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Rate of Cognitive Decline in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease: The Role of Comorbidity
Backman et al.
Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Science 2003;58:P228-236.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Functional Transitions and Active Life Expectancy Associated With Alzheimer Disease
Dodge et al.
Arch Neurol 2003;60:253-259.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Gender differences in predictors of mortality in nursing home residents with AD
Lapane et al.
Neurology 2001;56:650-654.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Affective behavioural disturbances in Alzheimer's disease and ischaemic vascular disease
Hargrave et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2000;68:41-46.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Gender differences in the relation between comorbidity and mortality of patients with Alzheimer's disease
Gambassi et al.
Neurology 1999;53:508-508.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Women and Alzheimer's Disease
Lerner
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 1999;84:1830-1834.
FULL TEXT  

Prevalence of intellectual dysfunctioning and its correlates in a community-residing elderly population
Nakanishi et al.
Scand J Public Health 1998;26:198-203.
ABSTRACT  

Procedural discourse of men and women with Alzheimer's disease: A longitudinal study with clinical implications
Ripich et al.
AM J ALZHEIMERS DIS OTHER DEMEN 1997;12:258-271.
ABSTRACT  

Sex Differences in Human Brain Morphometry and Metabolism: An In Vivo Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography Study on the Effect of Aging
Murphy et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1996;53:585-594.
ABSTRACT  

Gender Comparisons of Cognitive Performances Among Vascular Dementia, Alzheimer Disease, and Older Adults Without Dementia
Buckwalter et al.
Arch Neurol 1996;53:436-439.
ABSTRACT  

Estrogen Replacement Therapy in Older Women: Comparisons Between Alzheimer's Disease Cases and Nondemented Control Subjects
Henderson et al.
Arch Neurol 1994;51:896-900.
ABSTRACT