Kleisiaris C, Kaffatou E M, Papathanasiou I V, Androulakis E, Panagiotakis S, Alvino S, Tziraki C
Nursing Department, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece.
Nursing Department, Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, Greece.
Transl Med UniSa. 2019 Jan 6;19:27-35. eCollection 2019 Jan-Jun.
It is commonly accepted that frailty and dementia-related cognitive decline are strongly associated. However, degree of this association is often debated, especially in homebound elders with disabilities. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association of frailty on cognitive function in older adults receiving homecare. A screening for frailty and cognitive function was conducted at 12 primary healthcare settings of the nationally funded program "Help at Home" in Heraklion Crete, Greece. Cognitive function and frailty were assessed using the questionnaire and the , respectively. -Activities of Daily Living and the were also used for the identification of disability and comorbidity, respectively. The mean age of the 192 participants (66% female) was 78.04 ± 8.01 years old. In depth-analysis using multiple linear regression, revealed that frailty was not significantly associated with cognitive decline (frail vs. non-frail (B'=-2.39, p=0.246) even after adjusting for depression and multi-comorbidity. Importantly, as protective factors for cognitive decline progression and thus dementia development, was scientifically correlated with annual individual income >4500 (B'=2.31, p=0.005) -poverty threshold-compared to those with <4500 and, higher education level as compared to Uneducated (B'=2.94, p=0.019). However, depression was associated with cognitive decline regardless of socioeconomic variables. In conclusion, our results suggest that health professionals caring for frail people with cognitive impairment, must focus on early recognition and management of depression.
人们普遍认为衰弱与痴呆相关的认知衰退密切相关。然而，这种关联的程度常常存在争议，尤其是在居家的残疾老年人中。因此，本研究旨在调查接受家庭护理的老年人中衰弱与认知功能之间的关联。在希腊克里特岛伊拉克利翁由国家资助的 “在家帮助” 项目的12个初级医疗保健机构中，对衰弱和认知功能进行了筛查。分别使用 问卷和 评估认知功能和衰弱。日常生活活动量表和 也分别用于识别残疾和合并症。192名参与者（66% 为女性）的平均年龄为78.04 ± 8.01岁。使用多元线性回归进行的深入分析表明，即使在调整了抑郁和多种合并症之后，衰弱与认知衰退之间也没有显著关联（衰弱组与非衰弱组相比（B'=-2.39，p=0.246）。重要的是，作为认知衰退进展以及痴呆症发展的保护因素，与年收入>4500（贫困阈值）的个体相比，年收入<4500的个体以及与未受过教育的个体相比，受过高等教育的个体在科学上具有相关性（B'=2.31，p=0.005）。然而，无论社会经济变量如何，抑郁都与认知衰退相关。总之，我们的结果表明，照顾认知障碍衰弱患者的卫生专业人员必须专注于抑郁的早期识别和管理。
