TABLE 1.
Studies on vascular dementia (VaD) in relation with sex or gender.
| Sex | Age in years (Average age) | Diagnostic criteria | Education and marital status | Medical risk factors | Subjects | Key findings | Adjusted variables | References |
| Male | ≥55.0 (80.3) | MMSE, GMS-B, AGECAT, HAS, Katz’s bADL’s, IADL’s, EURODEM, Risk Factors Questionnaire. | Primary school, High school or higher. Single, married or living as a couple, divorced, or separated, or widowed | Vascular disease (angina, myocardial infarct, and/or stroke), diabetes, hypertension, health status, depression, cognitive status, vascular risk factors (smoking, statin use, body mass index, and alcohol intake) | 1,828 | In men, but not in women, risk of VaD was higher among individuals with anxiety | No description | Santabárbara et al., 2020 |
| Female | ≥55.0 (79.8) | 2,229 | ||||||
| Male | ≥65.0 (no average age description about male) | MMSE, GMS, CAMCOG, DSM-III-R | − | Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, or smoking, apolipoprotein E4 allele | 12,270 | There was no difference by sex in the cumulative risk of vascular dementia. The risk for a 65-year-old woman to develop vascular dementia at the age of 95 years was 0.040 compared with 0.041 for a man. | Age, the square term of age, dummy variables for study, smoking, education, self-reported myocardial infarction, and stroke. | Andersen et al., 1999 |
| Female | ≥65.0 (no average age description about female) | 16,497 | ||||||
| Male | ≥60.0 (70.1) | NINDS- AIREN, CASI, IQCODE | Less education (<7 Years), Higher education (≥7 Years) | Age, sex, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, drinking, smoking, education | 845 | Sex and a sex-age interaction showed significant effects with respect to probable VaD, but not to probable or possible AD or possible VaD. | No description | Yamada et al., 2008 |
| Female | ≥60.0 (72.2) | 2,105 | ||||||
| Male | ≥65.0 (no average age description about male) | NINDS, Association Internationale pour Ia Recherche et l’Enseignement en Neuroscience’s criteria, CDR scale, DSM-III-R | Education (number of years of schooling) | Age, sex, education in years, apolipoprotein E4 allele, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, Prevalence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular factors, obesity, stroke, CABG, myocardial infarction | 1,322 | Vascular factors increase risks for AD and VaD differentially by sex. | Adjusted for all covariates listed in the medical risk factors list | Steinberg et al., 2014 |
| Female | ≥65.0 (74.0) | 1,801 | ||||||
| Male | ≥65.0 (no average age description about male) | MMSE, MRI-based evidence of lacunar state or ischemic WMLs, ADL, IADL, HDRS, Stroop T | Education (years) | Sex, hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, coronary artery disease, tobacco smoking, atrial fibrillation, neurologic signs, family history, history of depression. | 156 | Moderate mocha coffee consumption was associated with higher cognition and mood status in non-demented elderly subjects with VCI. No description regarding relation of sex. | No description | Fisicaro et al., 2021 |
| Female | ≥65.0 (no average age description about female) | 144 | ||||||
| Male | 16–102 (no average age description about male and/or female) | The Cross-Cultural Cognitive Examination and National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association Alzheimer’s criteria | − | Sex, type 2 diabetes, lifestyle, cigarette smoking, and obesity | 2,310,330 individuals, and 102,174 dementia case patients (no separate male and female number description) | Women with diabetes had a 19% greater risk for the development of vascular dementia than men. | Age, race, systolic blood pressure, self-report diabetes; total cholesterol, hypertension, alcohol. | Chatterjee et al., 2016 |
| Female | ||||||||
| Male | STROBE, ARIC, CARDIA, CHS, FOS, NOMAS. | Education (≤8th grade, grades 9–11, completed high school, some college but no degree, ≥College graduate) | Age, race, education, alcoholic, cigarette smoking, any physical activity, BMI, waist circumference, history of arial fibrillation, LDL cholesterol, antihypertensive medication, | 11 775 | The results of this cohort study suggest that women may have greater cognitive reserve but faster cognitive decline than men, which could contribute to sex differences in late-life dementia. | No description | Levine et al., 2021 | |
| Female | 14 313 |
MMSE, Mini-Mental Status Examination; GMS-B, Geriatric Mental State B; AGECAT, Automated Geriatric Examination for Computer Assisted Taxonomy; HAS, History and Aetiology Schedule; bADL’s, Katz’s Index for basic activities of daily living; IADL’s, the Lawton and Brody scale for instrumental activities of Daily Living Scale; EURODEM, European Studies of Dementia; GMS, Geriatric Mental State Examination; CAMCOG, Cambridge Examination of Mental Disorders Cognitive Test; CASI, Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument; IQCODE, Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly; CABG, Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery; NINDS, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; CDR, Clinical Dementia Rating; WMLs, White Matter Lesions; ADL, Activities of Daily Living; IADL, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living; HDRS, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; STROBE, Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology; ARIC, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study; CARDIA, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, CHS, Cardiovascular Health Study; FOS, Framingham Offspring Study; NOMAS, Northern Manhattan Study.