Table 1.

Effects of sex on prevalence/incidence of dementia subtypes

Subtypes of dementia	Sex differences in prevalence/incidence	References
Alzheimer disease (AD)	Accounts for 60%–80% of dementia cases Lifetime risk of AD in women is almost twice that of men Men with AD have a shorter lifespan, regardless of age at diagnosis	Seshadri et al., 1997 Kua et al., 2014
Vascular dementia (VD)	Accounts for 10%–20% of dementia cases Risk factors for vascular or multi-infarct dementia More common in males than in females; greater severity of impact in females than in males	Appelros et al., 2009 Pendlebury and Rothwell, 2009
Lewy body dementia (LBD)	Extensive overlap with Parkinson disease dementia Greater incidence in males than in females (4.8 vs 2.2) More rapid cognitive decline in males than in females	Nelson et al., 2010 Savica et al., 2013
Parkinson disease dementia (PD)	Higher prevalence in males than in females Earlier onset of Parkinson disease dementia in males Greater severity of cognitive decline in males	Elbaz et al., 2002 Gillies et al., 2014 Augustine et al., 2015
Due to multiple causes (mixed dementia)	Prevalence differs greatly depending upon age and study but is 1.3% according to a recent systematic review Almost twice as common in men as in women aged > 60, although other studies suggest equal frequency in males and females	Martin-Laez et al., 2016 Siraj, 2011
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)	Rare: 1.26 cases/million people. Sex differences in prevalence and clinical course have not been reported	Gubbels et al., 2012 Skillback et al., 2014

Modified from Podcasy and Epperson (2016).