[Comment on article: "Risk factors associated with cognitive impairment in older adults: cross-sectional study"].

In patients with mild cognitive impairment, the activities of basic and instrumented daily living are preserved, this distinguishes it from major cognitive impairment. In the baseline state of the cross-sectional study on risk factors associated with cognitive impairment, patients with dependence in basic daily living activities were observed, so it is possible to incur an incorrect attribution of this factor, since functional dependence is usually a consequence of cognitive impairment and not one of the factors that precede it, so an-error is made when using the diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment. Cross-sectional studies identify risk factors by reconstructing phenomenology, which can lead to attributing as a cause a factor that, in reality, is a consequence of the outcome.