ABSTRACT
Summary
The study examined a representative population of women aged 70-79 in an English rural setting, using a modified version of the CAMDEX (Cambridge Disorders of the Elderly Examination: Roth et al. 1986). The aim of the study was to examine the relationship of dementia and cognitive impairment to normal ageing in a community sample. The distribution of characteristics associated with dementia was examined. The distributions of scores on cognitive and other scales used in the diagnosis of dementia were found to be unimodal, skewed, and smooth, as for most physiological variables. There was no clear disjunction between the demented and the normal on any of the scales. The effects of age, social class, education, IQ, and health on cognitive and non-cognitive scales are discussed.
