Cognitive Performance of the Elderly People in an Urban Area of Bangladesh: A Sociodemographic Study

A cross-sectional, analytical study was conducted to see the sociodemographic characteristics of elderly people and their association with cognitive performance in an urban setting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, between January and December of 2016. A convenient sampling technique was adopted. A total of 189 elderly people (118 male and 71 female) were included in the study. A semi structured questionnaire was first developed in English and then translated into Bangla. The questionnaire contains questions related to sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their cognitive functions, as determined by using Mini Mental state Examination (MMSE). Sociodemographic data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Pearson correlation test was applied to determine the relationship between quantitative variables, while Chi-square test was done to assess association of qualitative data. The age of the respondents ranged from 60 to 90 years. The mean age was 67.8±6.26 years. Higher proportion of male (37.3%) and female respondents (36.6%) were in 60-64 age group, while the lower proportion was in ≥75 years age group (male 12.7% and female 14.1%). Most of the male respondents were graduate and above education group (64.4%), while most female respondents belonged to SSC and below and informal education group (50.7%) group. The rest of them fell into HSC education group: 11% and 32.4% respectively. Most of the elderlies (57.67%) belonged to the extended family and the rest lived in the nuclear family (42.33%). Among the male respondents, 76.3% were retired. Rest of the respondents was service holder (9.3%), businessman (12.7%) and teacher (1.7%). Female respondents were mostly housewives (97.2%) and two were teachers (2.8%). Among 189 respondents, 35.4% had normal cognitive function. Half of the respondents (52.4%) had mild cognitive impairment and the rest had moderate cognitive impairment (12.2%). None had severe cognitive impairment. Significant relationships of the cognitive performance were observed with age, sex, marital status, educational status, and type of family they lived in. However, no significant association was found between occupation and cognitive performance.


Introduction
Cognition is about the processes behind human thinking and experiences.Cognition refers to "a process of identifying, selecting, interpreting, storing, and using information to make sense of and interact with the physical and social world, to conduct one's everyday activities, and to plan and enact the course of one's occupational life".

Address of Correspondence:
Email: irtifaazizoishee@gmail.com speed, logical thinking and spatial problem solving.A convenient sampling technique was adopted.
Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria,

Results
The age of the respondents ranged from 60 to 90 years.The mean age was 67.8± 6.26 years.
Higher proportion of male (37.3%) and female respondents (36.6%) were in 60-64 age groups, while the lower proportion was in the age group of ≥75 years (male 12.7% and female 14.1%).
Most of the male respondents were graduate and  No severe cognitive impairment was found (Fig. 1).A moderate negative association was revealed between age of the respondents and their cognitive performance, which was statistically significant (p<0.001) (Fig. 2).It was observed in the study that there was no association found between occupational status and cognitive performance; this may be due to our adoption of convenient sampling technique which could not show much variation in their pattern of earning livelihood and living standards.

Conclusion
Our data revealed significant relationships of the cognitive performance with age, sex, marital status, educational status, and type of family they lived in.However, no significant association was found between occupation and cognitive performance.

1
Scientists and researchers often refer to different cognitive domains such as perception, attention, memory, language, executive function (initiating, planning, organizing, controlling and evaluation of thinking and acting) and psychomotor speed.

2
Some of those cognitive functions decrease within normal aging; for example, short-term memory and the way we learn new skills, mental CBMJ 2024 January: Vol. 13 No. 01 finally 189 elderly people (118 male and 71 female) were included in the study.A semi structured questionnaire was first developed in English and then translated into Bangla.The questionnaire contains questions related to sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their cognitive functions, as determined by using Mini Mental state Examination (MMSE).The MMSE is one of the most commonly used tests worldwide for assessing cognitive function; it was developed by Folstein et al. in 1975. 12The MMSE assesses orientation in time and place, attention, memory, and language and visual construction.The MMSE has a maximum of 30 points where higher scores indicate better cognition.The cut-off levels used in this study were: ≥27 = no impairment; 21-26 = mild; 11-20 = moderate; and ≤10 = severe impairment.13 After data collection, each questionnaire form was checked to find out any incompleteness or missing data or outliers.Data sheets produced on the computer were double checked to ensure their accuracy and completeness.Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS software version 23.0.Sociodemographic data were analyzed with descriptive statistics.Pearson correlation was done to determine the relationship between quantitative variables, while Chi-square test was carried out to assess association of qualitative data.To assess the strength of association, odds ratio (OR) and their corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.All tests were two tailed and a P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.This research was approved by the Institutional Ethical Review Committee of National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM), Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Table -
II: Scores of mini mental state examination (MMSE) of the respondents (N=189) CBMJ 2024 January: Vol. 13 No. 01 Among the respondents, 35.4% had normal cognitive function.Half of the respondents (52.4%) had mild cognitive impairment and the rest had moderate cognitive impairment (12.2%). Table-III).
CBMJ 2024 January: Vol. 13 No. 01DiscussionThe present study was done on elderly people.14 In contrast, van Exel et al. reported that women were less prone to the development of cognitive impairment.