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Background It is hypothesized that education and marriage are resilience factors protective against senile dementia.Methods We investigated the resilience of elderly persons from dementia by considering the interactions between educational levels and marriage status. Four sociodemographic variables (age, sex, educational level, and marital status) were collected from 1177 elderly Chinese participants, for whom the mini-mental state examination score (MMSE score) was measured and severe cognitive impairment (MMSE score = 0) was identified.Results Lower educational level coupled with being widowed caused a greater risk of severe cognitive impairment (relative risk [RR] 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20-1.82; p < 0.001) for high-age elderly participants (age range: ≥80) than those low-age counterparts (age range: ≥60 and <80). By contrast, higher educational level coupled with being married leveled this age-related risk of cognitive loss (RR 0.91; 95% CI 0.65-1.27; p = 0.62). Further findings suggest that synergistically cognitive protection effect for education and marriage was only observed among high-age elderly persons, instead of among low-age ones.Conclusions Being well-educated and being married synergistically protected delayed cognitive function for elderly people. However, longevity is a prerequisite for realizing this benefit.
Background
The study was aim to prove that both rationality and emotion are indispensable for older people to maintain their ability to live independently during the twilight of their lives.
Methods
The resilience of older people to dementia were investigated by considering the interactions between educational levels and marriage status. Four sociodemographic variables (age, sex, educational level, and marital status) were collected from 1177 older Chinese participants, whose mini-mental state examination scores (MMSE scores) were measured.
Results
A lower educational level coupled with being widowed caused a greater risk for severe cognitive impairment (relative risk [RR] 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20–1.82; p < 0.001) for high-aged older participants (age range: ≥80) than for their low-aged counterparts (age range: ≥60 and < 80). In contrast, a higher educational level coupled with being married leveled this age-related risk for cognitive loss (RR 0.91; 95% CI 0.65–1.27; p = 0.62).
Conclusions
Further findings suggest that the synergistic influence of education and marriage was observed only among high-aged older people .Being both well-educated and married is associated with a delayed cognitive function for older people. However, longevity is a prerequisite for realizing this benefit.
Aim
Long‐term care needs are important for older adults with dementia in the West, but they have not received enough attention from China. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a long‐term care needs instrument for older Chinese adults with dementia.
Methods
A total of 1,212 older adults with dementia were recruited from five Chinese cities to complete a 30‐item long‐term care needs questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using multiple assessments, including a content validity assessment, Cronbach's alpha, an item‐to‐total correlation test, and exploratory factor analysis.
Results
The questionnaire was divided into four sub‐sections: life care services (eight items), basic and specialist care services (12 items), mental comfort psychological services (four items), and homecare support services (six items). Cronbach's alpha was .93 for the whole questionnaire and ranged from .83 to .92 for the four sub‐questionnaires. The item‐to‐total correlation coefficients for the four sub‐questionnaires were between .68 and .88, and the test–retest correlation coefficient was .88.
Conclusion
Our results validated the reliability and validity of a questionnaire designed to measure the quality of long‐term care services for older Chinese adults with dementia.
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