Heterogeneity of cognitive aging in Brazilian normal elderls

Abstract

With aging, several cognitive skills inevitably decline. However, cognitive losses do not occur homogenously in all elderly people, differing in number and severity of affected cognitive functions. These differences could be exacerbated by socioeconomic differences in a developing country like Brazil.Objectivesto characterize the cognitive functioning of healthy elderly subjects whose socioeconomic conditions differ to those of other studies.Methods60 elderly subjects with a mean age of 68 years, 43 women and 17 men, and mean schooling of 7.1 years, were studied. The cognitive function of this group was assessed using the following neuropsychological tests: Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS), Stroop Test, Verbal Fluency, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Rey Complex Figure, Vocabulary – Wais – III, Logical Memory (WMS-R), Visual Reproduction (WMS-R), and Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The neuropsychological data were submitted to Multivariate cluster analysis using SAS - Proc Cluster software and the complete binding hierarchical method.ResultsVariability was found allowing classification of the studied group into 4 clusters of individuals who had above-average (C1), average (C3 and C4) and below average (C2) performance. Schooling determined the results obtained, with less educated subjects showing poorer performance than higher-educated subjects.ConclusionsSignificant differences in the process of cognitive aging were detected on neuropsychological tests in this group of healthy elderly from the developing country of Brazil, where socioeconomic differences may exacerbate cognitive differences among older adults.

Differences in cognitive aging: typology based on a community structure detection approach

“…In their subsample of 84 older adults (50–82 years), one group showed impaired executive functioning, a second group performed poorly on tasks measuring processing speed while a third group showed a more general decrease in overall cognitive performance. A similar distinction in performance profiles has been reported in other studies (Ritchie et al, 1996 ; Maxson et al, 1997 ; Ylikoski et al, 1999 ; Foss et al, 2009 ; Costa et al, 2013 ) that specifically assessed cognitive typology in elderly.…”

Advanced Activities of Daily Living (AADLs) and cognitive performance in community-dwelling elderly persons: Data from the FIBRA Study - UNICAMP

“…[26][27][28][29][30] Total MMSE scores were higher among men, while engagement levels in AADLs were higher among women. [27][28][29][30] Education was the variable that best explained the variance in MMSE scores in the present study, followed by family income and participation in intellectual AADLs. These results may indicate that environmental circumstances in conjunction with socioeconomic factors are related to the preservation of cognitive function in aging.…”

Normative data of the Brazilian elderly in Logical Memory subtest of WMS-R

“…Although it is expected that some cognitive skills decline with age, some changes are clearly associated with education (Beydoun et al, 2014). Foss, Formigheri and Speciali (2009), for example, find significant positive correlations between level of education and performance in VEM tests in the elderly.…”