Question:
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey announced today inconjunction with the 8th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease andRelated Disorders found that 87 percent of adult Americans believe the "agingprocess" can cause or contribute to the development of dementia. That compareswith 72 percent in Canada and 59 percent in the major European countries.However, while it is true that the risk of developing dementia doubles everyfive years after the age of 65(1), Alzheimer's disease and other forms of thedisorder are not a natural consequence of aging.

Meanwhile, 17 percent of Americans, 39 percent of Canadians and 69 percent ofEuropeans surveyed are unaware of an established cause of dementia:cerebrovascular disease, manifested as one or more strokes.

What's your opinions???

Answer: A separate survey, also focused on beliefs related to dementia, was conductedamong primary-care physicians (PCPs). It found while 77 percent of AmericanPCPs said they routinely screen their elderly patients for signs of dementia,much higher percentages said they looked for other common disorders thatafflict the aging. Ninety-nine percent reported screening for prostate cancerin men, 99 percent said they assess for breast cancer in women, 95 percentroutinely screen for cardiovascular disease and 93 percent look forosteoporosis. As evidence of the continuing debate in the medical communityover whether routine dementia screening should be conducted among the elderly,the percent of PCPs reporting this practice was as low as 21 percent in theUnited Kingdom and 50 percent in France.

When asked specifically about their elderly patients who had experienced one ormore strokes, the percentage of PCPs worldwide who say they routinely screenfor dementia increased. Strokes can cause vascular dementia -- thesecond-most-common type of the disease. However, most PCPs under-estimated therisk of dementia in stroke victims. Although there is evidence that about halfof these individuals will develop dementia within five years of theirstroke(2), only 27 percent of American PCPs estimated an occurrence rate ofthis magnitude. This under-estimation was generally common among all of thecountries surveyed.