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Objective: Estimating the prevalence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the rate of conversion from MCI to AD in an elderly Arab population.

Background While older age influences the conversion from MCI to AD, the effect of gender and education is equivocal. Studies in populations with low schooling are reportedly rare.

Design/Methods: We performed a door-to-door study of all residents aged > 65 years in Wadi-Ara, an Arab community in northern Israel. Medical, family history and medications were recorded. Subjects were classified as cognitively normal (CN), MCI, AD or other based on neurological and cognitive examination in Arabic. MCI patients were re-examined at least one year later to determine the conversion to AD and the contributions of age, gender and education to the probability of conversion.

Results: Of the 944 participants (96.6% of those approached; 49 …