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P3‐582: TOBACCO EXPOSURE AND CESSATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCIDENT DEMENTIA AND NURSING HOME PLACEMENT
Author(s) -
Nystrom Naomi C.,
Cook Jessica,
Norton Derek L.,
Zuelsdorff Megan,
Wyman Mary F.,
Benton Susan Flowers,
Carlsson Cynthia M.,
Johnson Sterling C.,
Asthana Sanjay,
Gleason Carey E.
Publication year - 2018
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 - 10.1016/j.jalz.2018.06.1948
Subject(s) - dementia , medicine , hazard ratio , smoking cessation , proportional hazards model , disease , gerontology , confidence interval , pathology
Background:It has been suggested that illiteracy and low level of education are risk factors for developing dementia, but also that bilingualism could function as a protective factor. In Peru, both conditions are very frequent. We observed a dementia prevalence of 6.85% in schooled subjects and 15.2% for illiterates; but there is still no data on how bilingualism modulates cognitive response in healthy illiterates, especially in executive function. Therefore, our objectivewas to compare performance of bilingual andmonolingual healthy elder illiterates in executive control tasks, controlling the influence of age and the type of work. Methods:We evaluated 56 healthy illiterate elderlies, 40 bilinguals (M 1⁄4 71.20, SD 1⁄4 5.94) and 16monolinguals (M1⁄4 75.25, SD1⁄4 10.28) with inhibitory control tasks (modified Stroop, see figure 1), response suppression (Go / No Go), cognitive flexibility (Hanoi tower) and working memory (forward and backward digits, WAIS III). Non-parametric contrast statistics (U Mann Whitney) and covariance analysis were used, where the fixed factors were bilingualism and type of work (elementary or instrumental) and age as a covariate. Results: We observed significant differences between number and symbol (Z 1⁄4 -3.38, p <.001) and interference (Z1⁄4 -2.61, p <.009) of the Stroop tasks; in both cases bilinguals score better than monolinguals (see figure 2). The analysis of covariance also showed a greater effect of bilingualism on the measures of inhibitory control (Numbers and symbols, F 1⁄4 8.085, p <.006 and interference, F 1⁄4 9.604, p <.003) than age and type of work. No significant differences were observed in the other components of executive control. Conclusions: a bilingual advantage is observed in inhibitory control tasks in healthy illiterate older adults, which is not associated with age or type of work. This advantage seems to be associated with the activation of executive control mechanisms formore complex tasks. These data show that bilingualism modulates the cognitive response and functions as a cognitive reserve factor; hence the importance of its promotion and empowerment. We recommend conducting epidemiological and follow-up studies in this population.