To What Extent Does Age at Death Account for Sex Differences in Rates of Mortality From AD?

Our objective was to compare sex-specific rates of death with Alzheimer disease (AD) or dementia as the underlying or associated cause of death using death records.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30824901/

Women's older age at death explained much of the sex-related difference in rates of death from AD or dementia. Excess numbers of AD deaths among women and vascular dementia deaths among men remained, however, providing support for the hypothesis of greater biological risk of AD in women.

Women had a greater crude rate of death from all types of dementia than men (5.9 deaths per 1,000 person-years as compared with 3.8 deaths per 1,000 person-years), which disappeared after adjustment for age. For AD, the age-adjusted rate was higher among women (rate ratio = 1.14, 95% confidence interval: 1.12, 1.16), while for vascular dementia age-adjusted rates were higher for men (rate ratio = 0.80, 95% confidence interval: 0.78, 0.82). There was no evidence of a differential bias in coding of dementia type between men and women.