Institute of Public Health Faculty Seminar
Time：12:10 PM, 9th March
Location：Rm221, Medical Building II
Speaker：A.P. YI-FANG CHUANG
Title
Rural–Urban Differences in the Prevalence and Characteristics of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Independent Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Taiwan
Background
Taiwan is among one of rapidly aging countries and cognitive impairment increases exponentially with age among older adults. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) bears an increased risk of developing dementia later and may represent an early disease stage that is amenable to preventive strategies. There is currently no epidemiological data about the prevalence of MCI in Taiwan.
Method
The data was from the baseline assessment of a community-based prospective cohort study conducted in one rural and one urban areas of New Taipei City in Taiwan between 2017-2019. Four hundred and seventy individuals aged 65 years and older, independently living in the community, were recruited and underwent a battery of neuropsychological tests assessing cognitive domains of attention, memory and executive function. Diagnosis of MCI was ascertained through an expert consensus panel based on 2011 NIA-AA criteria.
Result
Mean age of participants was 71.1± 5.5 years. Participants from the rural area were older (72.6 vs. 70.6 years), had poorer education (5.5 vs. 8.7 years), higher body mass index (25. 9 vs. 24.6 kg/m²), and higher percentage of hypertension (54.5 vs. 43.6%) The prevalence of MCI was 45/122 (36.6 %) in the rural area and 40/348 (11.5 %) in the urban areas, for a overall 85/470 (18.1 %). The rural area had a significantly higher prevalence of MCI (age- ,sex-, and education-adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.86, 95 % CI: 1.68–4.86) than the urban area. There was no differences in the distribution of subtypes of MCI in two areas. In the rural area, only poorer education was associated higher prevalence OR of MCI whereas in the urban area, being male, poorer education, and higher geriatric depressive scale were associated higher prevalence OR of MCI.
Conclusion
The prevalence of MCI was much higher in the rural area relative to the urban area. Different factors were associated with the prevalence of MCI in the rural and urban areas. This regional difference suggests preventive strategies or programs against cognitive impairment should be tailored and modified according to the urbanicity of an area.
Learning objective: Describe the differences and associated factors in the prevalence of Mild Cognitive Impairment in the rural and urban area.
Key words: Mild Cognitive Impairment, Taiwan, urbanicity
Presenting author: Yi-Fang Chuang, Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
Co-authors: Kuan-Chia Lin¹, Yi-Chien Liu², Hsin-Yi Tseng³, Ming-Hsiung Shih⁴, Yen-Ling Chiu^5
1 Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration, National Yang-Ming University
² Department of Neurology, Cardinal Tien Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan
³ Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
⁴ Department of Family Medicine, Far-Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan
⁵ Department of Nephrology, Far-Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan