Implementing Diagnostic Criteria and Estimating Frequency of Mild Cognitive Impairment in an Urban Community

When proper normative values are used, only age and education, and not race or ethnicity, are associated with higher frequency of MCI. The proportion of nondemented elders with isolated memory deficits is smaller than the proportion with deficits in multiple cognitive domains. The strong association of the APOE E4 allele with only amnestic MCI suggests that there are likely to be multiple causes of cognitive impairment and differential rates of conversion to Alzheimer disease within the cognitive subtypes of MCI.