| Keywords |
Cognitive function ; Depression ; Cognitive impairment ; Elderly |
| Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to analyze the level of cognitive function and depression, and the risk factors of cognitive impairment of elderly aged over 60 living in A-Gun. The research design was a case-control study classified with 83 people having dementia as a case group and the remaining 116 people as a control group. Data were collected by interviewing the elders using a questionnaire from January 11th to August 6th, 2010 and were analyzed by SPSS 17.0. The main results of this study are as follows: The socio-demographic characteristics of all participants were high proportion of female, aging population and low education level. The epidemiological characteristics of all participants were high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and cerebrovascular accident. There were statistically significant differences in residential types, hypertension and depression among the groups. The level of cognitive function was higher in the control group than the case group, and the level of depression was higher in the case group than the control group. The result of evaluating the relationship between dementia and some related risk factors, depression, education period, residential types (with offspring), hypertension and female were found to be statistically significant risk factors in order. According to the results, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of the national early examination program for dementia. Also the effective measures in prevention and management of dementia in elderly living alone and families with dementia patient and a close prevention and management of hypertension and depression are needed. |