Back to Search
Start Over
Concordance rates for cognitive impairment among older African American twins
- Source :
- Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association; May2009, Vol. 5 Issue 3, p276-279, 4p
- Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- Abstract: Background: There is significant attention to the growing elderly African American population and estimating who and how many within this population will be affected by cognitive impairment. Objective: The etiology of cognitive impairment has not been well studied in African Americans and the contribution of genetic and environmental influences to cognitive impairment is not clear. Methods: We calculated concordance rates and heritability for cognitive impairment in 95 same-sexed pairs of African American twins from the Carolina African American Twin Study on Aging (CAATSA). The sample had an average age of 59.6 years (SD = 8.6 years, range 50-88 years) and 60% were female. The Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) was used to assess cognitive impairment with a lower cutoff based on our previous research with African Americans. Results: Thirteen of the monozygotic (MZ) twins (30.2%) and 9 of the dizygotic (DZ) twins (17.3%) were cognitively impaired. The concordance rate was 72% for MZ and 45% for DZ. We found the heritability for cognitive impairment to be 54%. Conclusions: The study findings indicate that cognitive impairment is highly heritable, suggesting that genetics may play a relatively large role in the development of cognitive impairment in African American twins. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Subjects :
- COGNITION disorders
CONCORDANCES (Topology)
ETIOLOGY of diseases
HERITABILITY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 15525260
- Volume :
- 5
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 39356195
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2008.09.003