Adult Kids of People With Dementia Diagnosed Earlier Than Their Parents

A study in JAMA Network Open found persons with dementia whose parents also had dementia manifest disease symptoms an average of six years earlier than their parents, reports Medical Xpress . The investigators examined medical records and interviews with participants and knowledgeable friends or family members. Children with one parent with dementia developed symptoms an average of 6.1 years earlier than the parent had. If both parents had dementia, the child's age at onset was 13 years earlier than the average of the parents' ages at diagnosis. The earlier age of onset in the second instance "suggests that it's more than just changes in diagnostic criteria or social attitudes," said Washington University School of Medicine Professor Gregory Day. "People with two parents with dementia may have a double dose of genetic or other risk factors that pushes them toward a younger age at onset." Factors like education, blood pressure, and the genetic variant APOE4, which elevates the risk of dementia, comprised less than a third of the variation in the age at dementia onset — so more than two-thirds have yet to be explained. "If we can better understand the factors that delay or accelerate the age at onset, we eventually could get to the point where we collect this information at a doctor's visit, put it through our calculator, and determine an expected age at onset for any adult child of a person with dementia," said Day.