Objective: To examine the relationship between cigarette smoking behavior and incipient development of dementia in a community-based cohort of elderly African-Americans in Indianapolis.
Design: longitudinal cohort study
Materials and Methods: As a part of a longitudinal epidemiologic study of Alzheimer Disease in African-Americans aged 65 and older in Indianapolis, data on smoking behavior from 1,624 randomly selected subjects were gathered. Subjects were then identified as current smokers, past smokers and lifetime abstainers. Smokers were then placed into three groups by pack year use. During a four-year follow-up period, incident dementia cases were recorded, according to Community Screening Interview for Dementia (CSI"D") performance.
Results: During follow-up, 288 cases (17.7%) of incident poor performers were identified, of whom 166 (57.64%) were current or past smokers. The odds ratios for poor performers in these two groups, as compared with abstainers, failed to reach significance. Adjusting for the effects of rural residence to age 19 also resulted in no significant association with CSI"D" performance.
Conclusion: Our results indicate an overall lack of association between cigarette smoking and risk of dementia development within four years in this study group.
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