Abstract

FONTELLES, Mauro José; CARVALHO, Raimundo Miranda de  and  D'OLIVEIRA, Marcelo Silveira. Alcoholism and smoking as a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analysis study. Rev. Para. Med. [online]. 2007, vol.21, n.1, pp.07-13. ISSN 0101-5907.

OBJECTIVE: to determine, using a systematic review of meta-analysis studies, whether or not, remote alcohol and smoke are significant risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. METHODS: using a meta-analysis statistics model, 12 case-control studies (6 for alcohol /6 for smoke) published on Medline from 1984 until 1999 which evaluated the interaction between those factors and Alzheimer's disease were investigated. Mantel-Haenszel adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated in stratified data. Epi Info statistical software was used to determine p-value with significant level at 0.05. RESULTS: the studies showed that a prior history of alcohol abuse wasn't associated with late-onset of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (OR=0.98; 95%CI 0.63 to 1.52; and p-value=0.996). And the other studies showed that a prior history of tabagism wasn't considered as a risk factor for AD (OR=0.70; 95%CI 0.57 to 0.85; and p-value= 0.0004). CONCLUSIONS: In this study alcoholism wasn't considered as a risk factor for AD .On the other hand , in people who had the smoke habit, chances of late-onset Alzheimer's development were reduced in 30%. In that case, tabagism was considered as a protector factor for AD.

Keywords : Alzheimer's disease; alcohol; smoke; risk factor; meta-analysis.

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