Table 1.
Baseline, diagnostic and medication characteristics of the two study groups: cases suffering from dementia with Lewy bodies versus Alzheimer’s disease patients
| Characteristic |
Dementia with Lewy bodies |
Alzheimer’s disease |
P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| (n = 634) | (n = 9,161) | ||
| Gender |
|
|
<0.001a |
| Female |
252 (39.7%) |
5973 (65.2%) |
|
| Male |
382 (60.3%) |
3188 (34.8%) |
|
| Age (years) |
76.5 (7.1) |
77.6 (8.3) |
<0.001b |
| MMSE score |
21.4 (5.0) |
21.5 (5.0) |
0.593b |
| Body mass index (kg/m2) |
24.4 (4.1) |
24.3 (4.1) |
0.565b |
| Living place |
|
|
<0.001a |
| Own house |
559 (88.2%) |
8627 (94.4%) |
|
| Nursing home |
75 (11.8%) |
512 (5.6%) |
|
| Co-resident |
|
|
<0.001a |
| Yes |
218 (36.0%) |
3879 (44.0%) |
|
| No |
387 (64.0%) |
4938 (56.0%) |
|
| Medication (at the time of diagnosis) |
|
|
|
| Cholinesterase inhibitors |
465 (73.6%) |
6598 (72.7%) |
0.272a |
| NMDA antagonist |
95 (15.0%) |
895 (9.9%) |
<0.001a |
| Antidepressants |
220 (34.8%) |
2382 (26.3%) |
<0.001a |
| Antipsychotics |
103 (16.3%) |
447 (4.9%) |
<0.001a |
| Anxiolytics |
84 (13.3%) |
747 (8.2%) |
<0.001a |
| Hypnotics |
106 (16.8%) |
1292 (14.2%) |
0.065a |
| Cardiovascular drugs |
365 (57.8%) |
4825 (53.2%) |
0.054a |
| Total number of drugs | 4.7 (3.0) | 3.7 (2.9) | <0.001b |
Data presented as number (%) or mean (standard deviation). Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) in bold. MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination; NMDA, N-methyl d-aspartate. aPearson chi-square statistic. bIndependent-sample t test.