ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To know the proportion of people older than 74, who are not institutionalized and not immobilized with cognitive alteration and to analyze if there is any association with social demographic characteristics and health factors. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study, made by interview. LOCATION: In an urban environment: Getafe, Parla, Pinto and rural environment: Griñón. PARTICIPANTS: The study population included all the people older than 74, that was registered in data base of individual health card, INSALUD. The sample, consisted by 704 elderly, who compliment including criterion, accuracy +/- 3.4%, p < 0.05 It's evaluated 615 persons. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: It's made by questionnaire that included social demographic variables, information about the necessity of help for basic activities in daily life (ADLs), perceived health status, illness, sensorial alterations, falls, stay in hospital, social support, rotation, architectonics obstacles. For evaluating the likely cognitive deterioration, it was used the Short Potable Mental Questionnaire (SPSMQ) with 2 cutting points: 2-4 errors and > 4 errors. The proportion of elderly people with cognitive deterioration (SPSMQ > 2) was 19% (95% CI, 16.2-22.4). This proportion grew with age, the same as men as in women (p < 0.0001), 11% (95% CI, 8-15) in < 80 years, 29% (95% CI, 23.8-34.8) in > 79 years. It's proved a significant statistically association between cognitive deficit (SPSMQ > 4), in age > 84 years OR = 4.1 (95% CI, 1.7-9.7), dependence degree for ADLs OR = 4.4 (95% CI, 2.2-8.8), and low cultural level, OR = 6.2 (95% CI, 2-18). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of cognitive deficit in elderly population who lives in community environment, it's associated with the degree of functional damage, advanced age and the absence of studies, without any difference between urban and rural environment.
