Poster Presentations

Session Title: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) including Non-Cognitive Aspects
Presentation Date: Friday, March 14 – Saturday, March 15, 2009

COMPARISON OF COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS BETWEEN HIGH CARDIOVASCULAR RISK AND HEALTHY COMMUNITY ELDERLY GROUPS

A.L. Costa, J.S. Varela, O. Mazetti, L. Restelatto, A. Fitterman, C. Godinho, A.L. Camozzato, P.D. Picon, E. Moriguchi, M.L. Chaves
Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Neurology Departament, Porto Alegre, Brazil


Objectives: The aging of the population is a universal phenomenon with direct consequences upon the public health system. One of the main consequences of the growth of this sector of the population is the increase of the prevalence of disorders as dementia and depression which are very frequent among the elderly. Recently, the relation between cardiovascular risk factors, dementia and depression have been approached in many investigations.This study aims to evaluate the relation of cognitive performance and depressive symptoms with cardiovascular risk in the elderly.
Methods: 94 high cardiovascular risk elderly patients and 160 healthy community elderly were evaluated cross-sectionaly. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) were used for the main measures. The cutoff for presence of depression was 6 on GDS.
Results: The high cardiovascular risk elderly group showed significant lower scores on MMSE (p< 0.001) and was significantly associated to depression (p< 0.001), independent on education. The logistic regression for depression as the dependent variable, age and group (healthy community or high cardiovascular risk elderly) were kept in the final equation. Higher age (Odds Ratio = 0.92; 95% CI 0.86 -0.98) and high cardiovascular risk elderly (OR = 2.99; 95% CI 1.36 - 6.59) were associated to depression.

Variables High cardiovascular risk elderly (n=94) Healthy community elderly (n=160) p
Age (mean ± SD) * 66,3 ± 6,2 67.7 ± 5.8 0.062
Sex ** Female (N %) 60 (63.8%) 108 (67.5%) 0.551
Education (mean ± SD) * 2.4 ± 6.49 6.49 ± 3.39 < 0.001
MMSE (mean ± SD) * 24.24 ± 5.28 25.46 ± 3.22 < 0.001
GDS (depression) ** Yes (N %) 31 (33%) 18 (11.3%) < 0.001


Variables B Wald p OR (95% CI)
Group * 1.096 7.403 .007 2.99 (1.36 - 6.59)
Education -.044 .513 .474 0.96 (0.85 -1.08)
Age -.083 6.693 .010 0.92 (0.86 -0.98)
MMSE -.056 1.643 .200 0.95 (0.87 -1.03)
Sex -.570 2.071 .150 0.56 (0.26 -1.23)
Constant 5.291 4.234 .040 198.514

Conclusion: The present findings corroborate the differential cognitive performance of elderly with high cardiovascular risk factors and the association of depressive symptoms to this group.


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