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Parkinsonism occurs commonly among the aged and people who have it may have twice the risk of dying than people who do not. Parkinsonism is characterized by symptoms such as tremor, rigid muscles, abnormal gait, and slow movement. Researchers performed neurologic exams on 467 people in a community who were aged 65 and older. Parkinsonism occurred in 159 of these people and its prevalence increased with age. The prevalence ranged from 15% among people aged 65 to 74, to 52% among people aged over 85. During an average follow-up of 9.2 years, the mortality rate was 78% among people with parkinsonism and 49% among people without it. When a statistical adjustment was made for age and sex, parkinsonism appeared to double the risk of death.

The incidence of Alzheimer's disease appears to increase with age. Researchers followed 2,313 people over 65 years old in East Boston, MA for an average of 4.3 years. All were free of Alzheimer's disease at the beginning of the study. Of 642 people tested for Alzheimer's disease during that time, 95 had probably Alzheimer's. The incidence of Alzheimer's disease increased in the older age groups. The rate was 0.6% per year in those 65 to 69 years old, 1% in those 70 to 74 years old, 2% in those 75 to 79 years old, 3.3% in those 80 to 84 years old and 8.4% in those older than 85. As life expectancy increases and the number of elderly people increases, the incidence of Alzheimer's disease will probably increase., Objective. - To determine age-specific incidence rates of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease. Design. - Cohort, followed a mean of 4.3 years. Setting. - East Boston, Mass. Participants. - Of 2313 persons aged 65 years and older who were initially free of Alzheimer's disease, 1601 participated in the ascertainment of incident disease (80% of survivor's), 409 declined participation, and 303 died before the end of the follow-up period. A stratified sample of 642 persons received detailed clinical evaluation. Outcome Measure. - Diagnosis of new probable Alzheimer's disease through structured clinical evaluation including neurologic, neuropsychological, and psychiatric examination. Community incidence rates were computed by 5-year age groups, adjusted for gender, single year of age, length of follow-up interval, and sampling design. Results. - The estimated annual incidence of Alzheimer's disease in the population was 0.6% (95% confidence interval [Cl], 0.3% to 0.9%) for persons aged 65 to 69 years, 1.0% (95% Cl, 0.6% to 1.4%) for persons aged 70 to 74 years, 2.0% (95% Cl, 1.3% to 2.7%) for persons aged 75 to 79 years, 3.3% (95% Cl, 2.2% to 4.4%) for persons aged 80 to 84 years, and 8.4% (95% Cl, 3.7% to 13.1%) for persons aged 85 years and older. Conclusions. - The incidence of Alzheimer's disease is substantial and is approximately 14 times higher among persons older than 85 years compared with those between 65 and 69 years of age.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine empirically how many patients are identified as delirious or nondelirious according to DSM-III, DSM-III-R, and ICD-10 criteria. Method: Daily, a trained research assistant using a structured instrument to detect the presence of symptoms of delirium evaluated 325 elderly patients who were admitted to a general hospital for acute medical problems. Each patient's symptoms were then compared with these diagnostic criteria sets to determine if the patient met criteria for delirium. Results: DSM-III criteria were the most inclusive: they identified 125 patients as delirious. DSM-III-R identified a somewhat different group of 106 patients as delirious. ICD-10 criteria identified only 30 patients as delirious. Conclusions: The development of new criteria for delirium (e.g., DSM-IV) will have to balance the need to define a pure group of patients for research purposes with the need to include cases of clinical interest. Changes in criteria should be based on data such as those presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]