Playing a Musical Instrument as a Protective Factor against Dementia and Cognitive Impairment: A Population-Based Twin Study

Table 2

Characteristics for pairs where at least one twin was a musician ( pairs¹).

	Cases ()		Controls ()	Odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI for crude model
Age (years)	(66–89)		(66–89)
Women	11 (40.7)		10 (37)
Men	16 (59.3)		17 (63)
Education (years)	(6–16)		(6–16)	OR = 0.96 (0.9, 1.1)
Physical activity^2	(0–3)		(0–3)	OR = 0.6^* (0.5, 0.8)
Musicians	10 (37)		21 (78)	OR = 0.35^* (0.14, 0.9)
Zygotic status
Monozygotic		3 (11.1)
Same-sex dizygotic		14 (51.9)
Opposite sex dizygotic		9 (33.3)
Indeterminate		1 (3.7)
Clinical diagnoses
Dementia	16 (59.3)
Cognitive impairment	11 (40.7)
Cognitively intact			27 (100)

Data are (%) or means ± SD (range).
¹There were 31 musicians in the sample. In 4 pairs, both twins were musicians.
²Physical activity was assessed using a 0–3 scale, where 0 is no activity and 3 is frequent activity.
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