A comparative study to screen dementia and APOE genotypes in an ageing East African population

Chen, Chien-Hsiun; Mizuno, Toshiki; Elston, Robert; Kariuki, Monica M.; Hall, Kathleen; Unverzagt, Fred; Hendrie, Hugh; Gatere, Samuel; Kioy, Paul; Patel, Nilesh B.; Friedland, Robert P.; Kalaria, Raj N.

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.06.014

« Previous Next »Neurobiology of Aging
Volume 31, Issue 5 , Pages 732-740, May 2010

A comparative study to screen dementia and APOE genotypes in an ageing East African population

Chien-Hsiun Chen
- Laboratory of Neurogeriatrics, Department of Neurology and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
- Current address of Dr C-H Chen, National Genotyping Center, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica IBMS, 2 Academia Rd. Nangang, Taipei City 115, Taiwan.
Toshiki Mizuno
- Department of Neurology, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Japan
Robert Elston
- Laboratory of Neurogeriatrics, Department of Neurology and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
Monica M. Kariuki
- Department of Psychiatry, Provincial General Hospital, Nyeri, Kenya
Kathleen Hall
- Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Fred Unverzagt
- Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Hugh Hendrie
- Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Samuel Gatere
- Avenue Hospital, First Avenue Parklands, Nairobi, Kenya
Paul Kioy
- Department of Medical Physiology, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Nilesh B. Patel
- Department of Medical Physiology, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Robert P. Friedland
- Laboratory of Neurogeriatrics, Department of Neurology and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
Raj N. Kalaria
- Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6BE, United Kingdom
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 191 248 1352; fax: +44 191 248 1301.

Received 13 September 2007; received in revised form 22 June 2008; accepted 27 June 2008. published online 14 August 2008.

Abstract

Previous studies have established cross-cultural methods to screen for ageing- related dementia and susceptibility genes, in particular Alzheimer's disease (AD) among the Canadian Cree, African Americans and Yoruba in Nigeria. We determined whether the Community Screening Interview for Dementia (CSID), translated into Kikuyu, a major language of Kenya, could be used to evaluate dementia of the Alzheimer type. Using two sets of coefficients of cognitive and informant scores, two discriminant function (DF) scores were calculated for each of 100 elderly (>65 years) Nyeri Kenyans. When the cut-off points were selected for 100% sensitivities, the specificities of the DF scores were remarkably similar (93.75%) in the Kenyan sample. We propose the adapted CSID can be utilised to detect dementia among East Africans. We also show that apolipoprotein E ɛ4 allele frequencies were high (∼30%) and not different between normal subjects and those with probable AD. There was no evidence to suggest years of education or vascular factors were associated with dementia status.

Keywords: Africa, Alzheimer's disease, Apolipoprotein E, Cognitive impairment, Dementia, Kenya, Neuropsychology