Mild versus moderate stages of Alzheimer's disease: three-year outcomes in a routine clinical setting of cholinesterase inhibitor therapy

Table 3 Factors affecting the long-term outcome with MMSE or ADAS-cog score as dependent variables

	MMSE			ADAS-cog
Significant predictors in final mixed models^a	β	95 % CI	p	β	95 % CI	p
Percentage of variance accounted for, all fixed terms	38.5 %, p <0.001			47.8 %, p <0.001
Fixed terms
Intercept	−0.936	−6.009, 4.137	0.717	21.058	8.622, 33.493	0.001
Time in months from baseline	−0.887	−1.264, −0.509	<0.001	−0.215	−0.651, 0.221	0.333
Baseline assessment score	0.937	0.760, 1.114	<0.001	0.636	0.508, 0.765	<0.001
Time in months × baseline assessment score	0.016	0.002, 0.030	0.030	0.015	0.005, 0.025	0.003
Background variables
Solitary living (no = 0, yes = 1)			ns	2.882	0.887, 4.877	0.005
NSAIDs/acetylsalicylic acid (no = 0, yes = 1)			ns	−2.368	−4.353, −0.383	0.020
Antipsychotics (no = 0, yes = 1)	−1.985	−3.346, −0.625	0.004			ns
Education (years)			ns	−0.374	−0.865, 0.118	0.136
Time in months × education (years)			ns	0.048	0.008, 0.089	0.020
Age at first assessment (years)	0.057	0.006, 0.109	0.030	−0.160	−0.288, −0.033	0.014
Time in months × age	0.005	0.001, 0.009	0.016			ns
IADL score at baseline	−0.078	−0.156, −0.001	0.048	0.241	0.043, 0.439	0.017
ChEI dose^b			ns	−0.057	−0.105, −0.010	0.018
Random terms (variance)
Intercept	4.671	3.445, 6.334	<0.001	11.382	5.851, 22.143	0.003
Time in months	0.029	0.021, 0.040	<0.001	0.174	0.128, 0.237	<0.001

Sex, apolipoprotein E genotype, age at onset, Physical Self-Maintenance Scale score at baseline, number of medications and the other specific concomitant medications used at baseline, as well as the variable comparing the ChEI agents, were not significant predictors in the models. β values were unstandardized and are expressed per 1 unit increase for continuous variables and for the condition present in dichotomous variables
^aBaseline assessment score = MMSE or ADAS-cog, respectively
^bMean percentage of the maximum recommended dose; that is, 10 mg for donepezil, 12 mg for rivastigmine, and 24 mg for galantamine
ADAS-cog Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale—cognitive subscale, ChEI cholinesterase inhibitors, CI confidence interval, IADL Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, MMSE Mini-Mental State Examination, ns not significant, NSAID non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug

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