Examined the immediate causes of death, in autopsied demented and non-demented elderly. 342 hospitalized demented and non-demented elderly (mean age 84.9 yrs) underwent consecutive postmortem examinations and were broken down into the following subgroups: 34 Ss with vascular dementia, 65 Ss with mixed dementia, 21 Ss with Alzheimer's disease and 222 non-demented Ss. Primary causes of death were similar in both demented and non-demented Ss; the commonest were cardiovascular disease and bronchopneumonia. Cardiac causes of death and especially cardiac failure were more frequent in vascular dementia than in Alzheimer's disease or mixed dementia. Dementia was an underlying but never a primary cause of death. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)