Teachers more prone to progressive speech and language disorders

A study has found that teachers are about 3.5 times more likely to have speech and language disorders as compared to patients with Alzheimer's dementia.

In the study, researchers looked at a group of about 100 patients with speech and language disorders and noticed many of them were teachers.

For a control, they compared them to a group of more than 400 Alzheimer's patients from the Mayo Clinic Study on Aging.

For other occupations, there was no difference between the speech and language disorders group and the Alzheimer's group.

Mayo Clinic neurologist, Keith Josephs, M.D., who is the senior author of the study, said that teachers are in daily communication, adding that it is a demanding occupation, and teachers may be more sensitive to the development of speech and language impairments.

The study has been published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias.