Memory problems worse for women than men over 90

Although dementia risk for both men and women is similar from age 65 to 85 a study has found that women over 90 are twice as likely to have dementia than men in their 90s.

The study author, Maria Corrada, of the University of California, said that “while men don’t typically live as long as women, those who do make it to age 90 appear to be much less likely to have dementia and also have a shorter survival time when they do have dementia”.

As well as finding that women were nearly twice as likely to have dementia as men, the results showed that the likelihood of having dementia doubled every five years in women but not in men. They also found that women with a higher education were as much as 45% less likely to have dementia compared to women with less education.

According to the US Census the 90-plus age group is the fastest growing segment of the US’s elderly population. Ms Corrada said that “as more and more people reach 90 our findings provide further evidence that more needs to be done to provide adequate resources to care for the increasing number of very old people with memory problems”.