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The proportion of the population over age 65 years is steadily increasing in Canada and the elderly who are unable to live independently are frequently institutionalized in chronic care facilities. We report our observations on movement disorders (MD) in an institutionalized elderly population of Saskatchewan. A representative sample of 67 subjects agedor = 65 years had a detailed neurological evaluation on three separate occasions. MD were detected in 13 (19%) cases. The majority, 11 (16%), were females. Seven (10%) had essential tremor, 4 (6%) Parkinson's disease and 2 (3%) had drug-induced parkinsonism.

s: Oral Presentations Annual Regional North American Meeting, Neuroepidemiology Research Group, 2008 Neuroepidemiology 2008;30:129–136 132 each SNP were calculated separately for men and women by a logistic regression allelic score test after controlling for age. Under the null hypothesis of no association the distribution of p values would be uniform with an expected mean p value of 0.5. We tested this null against the alternative hypothesis of a mean p value less than 0.5 using Wilcoxon’s signed rank test. Results: The mean p value of 0.43 was statistically significantly less than expected mean under the null (Wilcoxon’s V = 1,038, experiment-wise p = 0.014). A post-hoc analysis found that nine percent of the SNP associations tested were significant at the 0.05 level, about twice what would be expected due to random chance. Conclusions: These data are consistent with the involvement of calcium-related processes in age-associated cognitive decline. Experiment-wise hypothesis testing may provide a statistically efficient way of testing mechanistically related genes for association with phenotype or disease.

We studied movement disorders (MD) in community residents of Saskatchewan aged > or = 65 years. A representative sample of 70 individuals had detailed neurological evaluation. Those who had definite and possible MD at first examination had a second neurological assessment by a senior neurologist. The most prevalent MD was essential tremor (ET) (14%) followed by Parkinson's disease (PD) (3%). The marked difference in prevalence ratios for PD and ET are attributed to: (a) higher incidence of ET in the general population; (b) a greater possibility that most, if not all, ET cases would reside in the community whereas a sizable proportion of elderly PD cases may be institutionalized, and (c) shortened survival in PD but a normal life expectancy in ET.