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Prevalence of cognitive deficit in elderly with depressive symptoms
Author(s) -
Rosa Giovana Carolina Láo,
Borges Sheila de Melo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.047446
Subject(s) - geriatric depression scale , verbal fluency test , depression (economics) , dementia , cognition , medicine , population , depressive symptoms , cognitive deficit , gerontology , psychiatry , clinical psychology , psychology , cognitive impairment , neuropsychology , disease , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Background Depression often presents with memory complaints and can impair memory functions. As dementia, depression is one of the major geriatric syndromes that compromises the quality of life of this population. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of cognitive impairment in the elderly with suggestive scores of depressive symptoms and to verify the relationship between cognitive screening tests and depressive symptoms in this population. Methods A cross‐sectional study was carried out with 66 elderly people attended by Primary Health Units in the municipality of Santos, State of São Paulo, Brazil. To contemplate the objective of the present study, age, education and sex were analyzed, as well as cognitive screening tests such as the Mental State Mini‐Exam (MMSE), verbal fluency test (FV) animals category and the Clock Drawing Test (CDT). In addition, we analyzed data from the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS‐15), which is a screening test for depressive symptoms. Results The mean age was 70.8 ± 7.6 years, with the majority being women (n = 53; 80.3%); with a mean of 7.4 ± 4.0 years of schooling. The mean score of the GDS‐15 was 7.4 ± 1.6 points, with a higher frequency of mild depressive symptoms in the test classification (n = 63; 95.5%). Regarding cognitive tests, the mean of the MMSE was 25.5 ± 3.0 points, of the FV it was 13.6 ± 4.9 animals spoken in one minute and the TDR had a mean of 2.9 ± 1.6 points. To assess the correlation between the score of the cognitive screening tests and the classification of the GDS‐15, the Spearman's Correlation Coefficient (r) test was used. For statistical significance, we accept a p‐value <0.05. We observed a weak and negative correlation for GDS‐15 with MMSE (r = ‐0.26; P = 0.03), with CDT (r = ‐0.27: P = 0.02). There was no correlation with VF (r = ‐ 0.08: P = 0.5). Conclusions The study, both the MMSE and the CDT were shown to be more compromised in the population studied, these tests also being those that showed a correlation with the GDS‐15 scale.