TITLE:
Easy detecting signal of cognitive decline in healthy community-dwelling elderly people
AUTHORS:
Takeshi Hatta, Taketoshi Hatta, Chie Hotta, Emi Ito, Akihiko Iwahara, Naoko Nagahara, Junko Hatta, Kazumi Fujiwara, Nobuyuki Hamajima
KEYWORDS:
Signal of Cognitive Decline; Cognitive Aging; Social Activity; Memory; Information Processing Speed; Verbal Function
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.12A,
December
10,
2013
ABSTRACT: The relationship between changes of elderly people’s participation in social activities and their cognitive functions was examined. Healthy, middle and upper-middle aged people (n = 407) responded to the Nagoya University Cognitive Assessment Battery and to a questionnaire inquiring about their participation in social activities. The results suggested that those whose participation in social activities increased in the last 6 months showed better verbal functioning than those whose participation was unchanged or decreased. Moreover, those whose social participation decreased showed inferior memory function compared to those whose social participation was unchanged, or increased. Furthermore, those whose social participation increased had better information processing speed than those whose social participation decreased. These results suggest that changes in social activities might act as an important signal that is indicative of the cognitive decline in elderly people, which would be useful to local health care managers in the elderly people’s community.