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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Dement.
Sec. Aging and Risk Factors for Dementia
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frdem.2024.1494719

Dementia Incidence Among a Cohort of Lebanese Older Adults: First Incidence Estimates from the Middle East and North Africa Region

Provisionally accepted
Khalil El Asmar Khalil El Asmar 1*Monique Chaaya Monique Chaaya 1Sarah Assaad Sarah Assaad 2Hala Darwish Hala Darwish 3Rosemary Khoury Rosemary Khoury 1Ramzi Hajjar Ramzi Hajjar 4Dahlia Saab Dahlia Saab 1Marc Haber Marc Haber 1
  • 1 American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
  • 2 University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 3 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
  • 4 American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Beyrouth, Lebanon

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: To provide the first estimates of dementia incidence rates among elderly in Lebanon.Methods: The cohort established in 2013 consisted of 470 elderly from Beirut and Mount Lebanon, who consented to be followed-up. In 2017, we reached 341 participants/informants, achieving a response rate of 72.6%. The validated Arabic version of the 10/66 Dementia Research Group diagnostic tool was administered through face-to-face interviews. Direct age standardization was applied to the data using the Western European population distribution. Age-, sex-and locationspecific incidence rates were estimated.Results: After 3.5 years of follow up, 19 new cases of dementia were identified among 229 surviving participants. The crude incidence rate was 16.8 per 1000 p-y, and the age standardized rate was 20.5 per 1000 p-y. The incidence rate increased with age, going from 6.5 for those aged 65-74 years to 54.0 for those aged 85-89 years. Incidence rate was higher among females than males (20.7 vs.12.0), and higher in Mount Lebanon, as compared to the capital city Beirut, (19.5 vs.14.9). Conclusion: Dementia incidence rate was close to European and North American countries' estimates. The use of validated tools increased the internal validity of our results. A large cohort study is warranted to confirm these results.

    Keywords: dementia incidence, Alzheimer's disease, MENA region, incidence rates, gender differences, regional differences, Lebanese Older Adults

    Received: 11 Sep 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 El Asmar, Chaaya, Assaad, Darwish, Khoury, Hajjar, Saab and Haber. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Khalil El Asmar, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.