MRC Unit for Lifelong Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Neuroepidemiology. 2009;33(3):231-9. doi: 10.1159/000229777. Epub 2009 Jul 27.
To assess differences in cognitive functions by year of birth in Russia and the Czech Republic.
A cross-sectional study in the general population of Novosibirsk (Russia) and 6 cities of the Czech Republic recruited random samples of men and women (3,874 Russians, 3,626 Czechs) aged 45-69 years in 2002 (i.e. born in 1933-1957). Word recall, verbal fluency (number of animals named in 1 min) and letter search were assessed in a clinic.
Except letter search in men, we found similar levels of cognitive functioning in Russians and Czechs in the youngest subjects and a steeper association of functioning with year of birth in Russia than in the Czech Republic. For example, the difference in the mean word recall, associated with 10 years difference in year of birth, was 0.9 (SE 0.06) words in Russian men, compared to 0.4 (0.06) words in Czech men; in women, these figures were 0.8 (0.05) and 0.3 (0.05), respectively. For all outcomes, except letter search in men, the interactions between year of birth and country were statistically highly significant, and the differences in the year of birth effects between countries were largely unexplained by socioeconomic indicators and risk factors.
The slope of association between lower cognitive functioning and earlier year of birth is much steeper in Russia than in the Czech Republic. Given that poor cognitive functioning is a risk factor for dementia, long-term follow-up of this cohort and other studies into population rates of cognitive impairment in Russia should be a priority.
评估俄罗斯和捷克共和国出生年份对认知功能的影响。
在俄罗斯新西伯利亚和捷克共和国 6 个城市进行的一项横断面研究，招募了 45-69 岁的男性和女性（3874 名俄罗斯人，3626 名捷克人）的随机样本，这些人在 2002 年出生（即 1933-1957 年出生）。在诊所评估单词回忆、言语流畅性（1 分钟内命名的动物数量）和字母搜索。
除了男性的字母搜索，我们发现俄罗斯人和捷克人在最年轻的受试者中认知功能水平相似，而且俄罗斯认知功能与出生年份的相关性比捷克更强。例如，在俄罗斯男性中，与出生年份相差 10 年相关的平均单词回忆差异为 0.9（SE 0.06）个单词，而在捷克男性中为 0.4（0.06）个单词；在女性中，这些数字分别为 0.8（0.05）和 0.3（0.05）。除了男性的字母搜索，所有结果的出生年份和国家之间的交互作用均具有统计学意义，并且国家之间出生年份影响的差异在很大程度上无法用社会经济指标和风险因素来解释。
与认知功能较低相关的出生年份的相关性斜率在俄罗斯比在捷克共和国陡峭得多。鉴于认知功能较差是痴呆的危险因素，因此对该队列进行长期随访以及对俄罗斯人口认知障碍率进行其他研究应该是优先事项。
