MCI Mild Cognitive Impairment: What is it? Who gets it?
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What is MCI?
People with MCI have mild problems with thinking and memory that do not interfere with everyday activities, although their forgetfulness is often apparent to them and their friends and family.
Does MCI lead to a dementia such as Alzheimer's?
While not everyone with MCI develops dementia, an estimated 5 to 10 percent do.
What are the symptoms of MCI?
Symptoms include:
- Difficulty learning and remembering new information
- Difficulty solving problems or making decisions
- Forgetting recent events or conversations
- Taking longer to perform complex or difficult mental activities.
What are the odds of getting MCI?
Researchers involved in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging reported that more than 6 percent of Americans age 70 to 89 develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI) every year. Also, the condition appears to affect men and those who only have a high school education more than women and those who have completed some higher education. People with MCI are at the stage between suffering the normal forgetfulness associated with aging and developing dementia, such as that caused by Alzheimer's disease.
What insights does the Mayo Clinic study offer about MCI?
Mayo Clinic's study reports that 296 of the 1,450 study participants developed MCI, an incidence rate of 6.4 percent per year overall. Among men, the incidence rate was 7.2 percent, compared with 5.7 percent per year for women.
The study, "The Incidence of MCI Differs by Subtype and is Higher in Men," was published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
VIDEO ALERT: Excerpts from an interview with Dr. Roberts are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog.
The study's lead author is Rosebud O. Roberts, M.B., Ch.B., of the Mayo Clinic Division of Epidemiology. She says,
"While incidence rates for MCI have been reported previously, ours is one of the few studies designed specifically to measure the incidence of MCI and its subtypes using published criteria. The statistically significant difference between incidence rates among men and women represents an important finding for those evaluating patients for MCI."
Subtypes: aMCI & naMCI
The study also looked in more detail at patients with MCI, dividing them according to whether they developed amnestic MCI (aMCI) -- in which the condition affects the memory domain -- or non-amnestic MCI (naMCI).
Dr. Roberts commented on the extra effort made to break the participants into different groups. She said,
"Understanding the distribution of incident MCI by age, sex and other demographic variables is critical to helping us understand the cause of the condition, as well as how to prevent MCI and its progression to full-blown, irreversible dementia."
Similar to the overall results, the incidence rates for aMCI and naMCI were higher in men than in women. In addition, the study found that individuals with only a high school education developed either aMCI or naMCI at a higher rate than those with some higher education.
Better Information Means Better Evaluation and Care
Dr. Roberts summed up the importance of this study, saying,
"This study advances our understanding of MCI and will help clinicians provide even better care for their patients, especially during initial evaluations."
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