Cognitive function of Brazilian elderly persons: longitudinal study with non-clinical community sample

Abstract

Several biopsychosocial changes in individuals' life might happen, resulting in a decline of longterm cognitive abilities. In this way, the aim of this study was to compare cognition in non-clinical older adults in Brazil during a four-year period, as well as to examine which variables may explain cognitive function variations identified during this time. For this purpose, a longitudinal study was developed including 108 older Brazilians in phase I and 64 in phase II, from 2013 to 2017. Sociodemographic variables were assessed and the following instruments were administered: the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) -3rd Edition -Digital Symbol-Coding subtests, the Verbal Fluency Test (animal category), the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item version (GDS-15). In order to compare cognitive variables, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for repeated measures was used. Temporal comparisons of nominal variables were carried out using McNemar's chi-square tests for matched pairs. Finally, multiple linear regression and correlation analyses were applied, using the participants' cognitive performance variation scores (D) as dependent variables. Global cognitive function delayed verbal episodic memory, and processing speed experienced a significant decline in four years. Symptoms of anxiety were the main predictor of cognitive performance variations in this sample.

Making Older Adults' Cognitive Health Visible After Covid-19 Outbreak

“…The training of metacognitive strategies is strongly linked to Cognitive Health in the aging process. This training might slow down the deterioration of certain crucial processes for seniors as indicated by other longitudinal programs (Farina et al, 2020a , b ). Particularly, it is of interest for the adoption of digital technology, as previously stated, but also for other instrumental processes, such as the visual-spatial navigation.…”

Improving the Assessment of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Advanced Age With a Novel Multi-Feature Automated Speech and Language Analysis of Verbal Fluency

“…Prior research suggests that verbal fluency is a function of individuals' age regardless of cognitive functioning and younger populations perform better in this test compared to older adults (Alenius et al, 2019;Taler et al, 2019). Within older adults with normal cognition, Farina et al (2019) highlights that within a short period of one's life, the rate of decline in VF score is not significant. In contrast, individuals with MCI achieve lower VF score than the healthy population and their score declines faster in the same period of time.…”

Normative data for middle-aged Brazilians in Verbal Fluency (animals and FAS), Trail Making Test (TMT) and Clock Drawing Test (CDT)

“…Besides, several studies aiming to evaluate the cognitive profile of adults and elderly people include some of these tests in their battery. [8][9][10][11] Fluency tests are widely used because of their sensitivity for executive functions, 12 detection of dementia, 13 and fast application. Among the studies in Brazil to obtain normative data for the "animal" class, some studies were directed to the elderly population.…”