Cognition among Old Age Population in a Rural Area

摘要

"Background: With the advancement of the age, the chance of cognitive decline is increasing. Screening of the cognitive decline as earliest may prevent complications. The study was conducted to determine prevalence of and factor affecting cognitive decline among old age population. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study conducted in the rural area of Vadodara district among old age population from October 2012 to March 2013. A sample size of 600 was obtained using hypothesis testing method. Using simple random sampling, 6 talukas were selected and from each, 4 villages were chosen. From each village, 25 study participants were included in the house to house survey. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was applied to measure cognition among study participants. Results: Overall prevalence of cognitive impairment in terms of an MMSE score < 22 among study participants was 23.5% which was as higher as 61.2% in age group of more than 80 years. Prevalence of cognitive decline in male and female participants was 15.3 and 36.2% respectively. Cognitive impairment was significantly associated with older age group and female sex Conclusions: Cognitive impairment is more or less inevitable in elderly. Knowledge of burden of the problems and associated factors may help policy makers for designing better geriatric health services.