Vascular Dementia

[David Forfar]

I read that people can get vascular dementia through diabetes.Is this ver common

 

[Vonny]

Eek!

 

[silentsquirrel]

Without trying to find any authoritive figures:
many elderly people have Type 2 diabetes and many elderly people have vascular dementia. Some will have both.
Even if one increases the risk of the other, there is no point in worrying - all you can do is keep your BG levels as well managed as you can.

 

[mikeyB]

I've read that, too. Apparently Type 2 diabetes increases your risk by 56%.

So if you aren’t diabetic , say your risk is 5% of developing vascular dementia. If you have T2 that means your absolute risk is around 7.5%. Big deal.

 

[Docb]

So your risk increases from 5% to 7.5%, that is a rise of 2.5% which is 50% of the start value. Somebody looking for a sensationalist headline would then say your risk has increased by 50%. Complete nonsense as @mikeyB points out.

As I have said before, if i were in charge I would ban the use of percentages.

 

[Docb]

Fair enough @Anitram, but in my experience when anybody quotes a percentage it is always wise to ask what numbers it was derived from so that it is possible to make some sort of judgement about what you can read into it.

 

[Eddy Edson]

The study: https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dom.14321

 

[Ditto]

It's a dead cert that when you get old you will get cancer, heart disease, dementia or what have you. You gotta die of summat! I should go and get tested to see if I've got hereditary dementia but I can't be bothered as the liver will probably get me first, the high blood pressure, failing heart and diabetes is the last thing I worry about. It's nice to have a choice...

 

[Docb]

The study: https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dom.14321

I bit dense so it would need a bit of looking at but at first skim through my point is actually illustrated. Towards the end there is a statement of a 50 odd percent increase in risk factor. Others may have taken this number and described it as an increase in risk, a very different thing.

 

[Eddy Edson]

It's a dead cert that when you get old you will get cancer, heart disease, dementia or what have you. You gotta die of summat! I should go and get tested to see if I've got hereditary dementia but I can't be bothered as the liver will probably get me first, the high blood pressure, failing heart and diabetes is the last thing I worry about. It's nice to have a choice...

My attitude: however it happens, but I really hope it's not being eaten alive by a wild animal or fish. However if I get a choice, I pick being hit by a meteorite.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I bit dense so it would need a bit of looking at but at first skim through my point is actually illustrated. Towards the end there is a statement of a 50 odd percent increase in risk factor. Others may have taken this number and described it as an increase in risk, a very different thing.

Dumb question: what's the difference between "risk" and "risk factor"?

 

[trophywench]

First is what you are prepared to take, second is what you already have.

 

[Docb]

Dumb question: what's the difference between "risk" and "risk factor"?

Risk factor, at least as used in the paper, refers to a method used to asses relative risks calculated by the methodology detailed in the paper.

Risk can mean almost anything you want it to mean.

PS... I was going to suggest that "risk" is what Jonathon Ross calls the thing he uses to beat eggs, but that would have been a bit frivolous.