Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, King's College London and Stavanger University Hospital in Norway have concluded in a study that eleven percent of participants over the age of 70 meet the criteria for being offered the drugs that can potentially slow cognitive decline.
"The important thing in this study is the large group of elderly people who already have early symptoms and where there is an opportunity to offer treatment," says Henrik Zetterberg, professor of neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg, in a press release.
The proportion of Alzheimer's-related changes in the younger age groups was lower than expected, but they increase with age. The biomarker was found in the blood of just under 8 percent of participants aged 65–69 and in just over 65 percent of those over 90.
The study, which has been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, is based on more than 11,000 blood samples from people over the age of 57 in the local population in Trøndelag, Norway.
