Prevalence of Cognitive Impairment in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Introduction: mild cognitive impairment can be considered as an intermediate clinical state between normal cognitive aging and mild dementia. elderly people with this impairment represent an at-risk group for the development of dementia. the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults by mini-mental state examination (mmse) and its relationship with socio-demographic variables. methods: in this analytical-descriptive study,212 subjects admitted to hamadan's day care centers were selected through simple random sampling method. to gather the data,mmse was used as well as a questionnaire containing demographic variables. data analysis was completed through spss-16. results: the sample consisted of 17.9% male,59.4% of whom were married. according to the results,96 cases (45.3%) suffered from mild (mmse≥22),110 cases (51.9%) from moderate (11≤mmse≤21) and 6 cases (2.8%) from severe cognitive disorder (mmse≤10). as findings revealed,factors such as age (pv = 0.005,r = -0.491) and schooling (pv < 0.001) are of significant relationship with mmse score. discussion: prevalence of cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults was of normal range. hence,familial relations and social support can decrease mental status disorder.