TORONTO (AP) -- Scientists who tracked down every centenarian in three towns reached a sobering conclusion: Few people live to 100 without losing a significant amount of brainpower.
Twelve of the 17 Dutch centenarians who were examined were found to be moderately to severely demented, and three more had mild dementia. The other two couldn't be tested.
It's a gloomy result, said Dr. Ben Blansjaar, who presented the work Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. But he said medications might help people who reach triple-digit ages in the future.
Blansjaar and colleagues studied centenarians in towns near their institution, the St. Joris Gasthuis psychiatric hospital in Delft, The Netherlands.
Dr. Jeffrey Kaye, a neurologist who directs the Oregon Brain Aging Study at the Oregon Health Sciences University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, agreed that few people could live to 100 without serious mental decline.
"I can say unequivocally you can be over 100 and not be demented," he said, but it's "very, very rare."
Other experts cautioned the study is small and said results might not apply to centenarians in general.
Nobody knows for sure how common dementia is in centenarians. It is an important question because centenarians are a rapidly growing group and planners want to know what their health care needs will be in the future. In 1995, the United States had about 45,000 white citizens age 100 or older. By the year 2050, that figure will grow to 607,000.
Among blacks, it is projected to grow to 116,000 from 7,000.
Researchers are just starting to look at dementia rates in the "oldest old," age 85 and above.
One big question: "If you live to be an old enough age, will everybody become demented? We really don't know," said Neil Buckholtz, chief of the dementias of aging branch at the National Institute on Aging.
Blansjaar and his colleagues found the 17 centenarians in three towns with a total population of 250,000. The group they identified had an average age of 101; all but two were women.
Most had no education beyond primary school, but Blansjaar said information from relatives indicated the participants had been "healthy, active and smart above average."
Five of the centenarians examined were in an almost vegetative mental state. Of the 10 others, only one knew the year, month, date and day of the week. Only two could adequately explain what two out of three familiar proverbs mean.
Buckholtz said the Dutch study is too small to give a reliable indication of dementia rates, and that it's not clear whether the numbers would apply to other populations. He said he knows of unpublished research that suggests 20 percent to 30 percent of centenarians are demented, but that there are no solid figures yet.
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