Increasing age is the main risk factor in the development, and in the worsening, of dementia, and the average age of 78 in our sample may partly explain the lower ACE-III cut-off of 76 in the mild group found in our study compared with the previous evidence6 (where the commonly employed ACE-III cut-off to delineate mild dementia was below 82). This evidence concerns the gene ACE and dementia.