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Mild cognitive impairment that happens in old age people appears more common in men than in women according to a research.

Mild cognitive impairment is a condition that happens to individuals characterized by memory loss beyond the normal course of aging and education. Experts consider the conditions as the transitional phase between normal cognitive impairment due to aging and dementia. Mild cognitive impairment heightens the risk for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Individuals affected with mild cognitive impairment have 10% to 15% increased chance that the condition will progress to Alzheimer’s disease with each passing year.

According to the study posted in the journal Neurology, men have 1.5 times increased risk to develop mild cognitive impairment compared with women. However, men show gradual memory impairment as compared with the abrupt decrease of cognitive functioning in women.

Ron Petersen, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and a team of researchers study a population of adult people in Olmsted County, Minnesota. The population includes 1,969 adults aging 70 to 89 years.

Researchers use the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale in calculating cognitive functioning of the participants. It includes series of cognitive function tests that evaluates the person’s memory, judgment, orientation, leisure, community affairs, and self-care.

The result shows that mild cognitive impairment affects 329 adults or about 16% of the sample population. Comparing the prevalence of the condition in both genders, researchers find out that there are about 19% cases of mild cognitive impairment in male population while there are about 14% cases in female population.

Other results show that about 10% of the population has developed dementia. The remaining 76% of the population show normal pattern of mental faculties with aging.

The result of the study is rather uncommon, an expert says. Other studies suggest that Alzheimer’s disease, the disease following the mild cognitive impairment, is more common in women. They suggest conducting more researches to prove the claims.