Estudo de painel: perfil cognitivo e fatores associados em uma coorte de idosos de uma região da Zona da Mata Mineira

Abstract

The growth of the elderly population is a worldwide phenomenon, and in Brazil, has been taking place in a very accelerated way. Linked to this fast growth is the epidemiologic demographic transition process which has been ocurring, and several crucial questions that managers and researchers must face about the health system, since there is an increasing demand on health services, mainly because of the prevalence of Chronic Noncommunicable diseases (CNCD) in the elderly population. In this context, within the main problems that will affect the elderly, it is dementia, that presents an annual incidence that increases markedly with age, and associated with dementia is the progressive cognitive deficit, commonly observed on the natural aging process and representing a significant problem of public health. In this perspective, the present research aims to evaluate the Cognitive Deficit and factors associated with transitions of cognitive profiles in elderly residents of the northern sector of Juiz de Fora – MG, located in the Zona da Mata Mineira, through a panel study. It is a longitudinal study, conducted through a household survey, with two data collections made in the years 2010 and 2014/1015, respectively. The test used to evaluate the Cognitive Impairment was the Mini-Mental State Examination, the most widely used test in studies that seek to evaluate cognitive level changes. The study cohort consisted of subjects aged 60 years or older, of both sexes, not institutionalized, selected through cluster sampling, based on the type of health care coverage offered by the United Health System. The collected data were entered into a database and analyzed by the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences®17.0 (SPSS) version 17.0, and submitted to bivariate descriptive statistics and both binomial and multivariate logistic regression analysis. For these analyzes, we used the technique of removing variables one by one based on significance level (α<0,05). The panel is configured by the majority of women (67,1 %) , 51,8 % are married or have stable, 55,7 % have between 1 to 4 years of schooling and 60,5 % belong to socioeconomic class C. With respect to the cognitive aspects, 72,4 is the average age for both sexes in proportion men show greater cognitive impairment (26,6%) than women (18,5%) and 26,9 % these did not attend school. According to the Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis results, the probability of an elderly living with cognitive impairment in the 2nd phase of the study, ie after 4 years, are higher among older people with older age, low or high socioeconomic class, with poor self-rated health and self-rated poor vision. Thus, the results of this study contribute for a better understanding of the possible predictive factors for the change in cognitive status in older adults and thus, prevention, health promotion and recovery, they may be taken in order to reduce possible damages arising with the aging process and consequently with dementia processes.