Cognitive status in the community dwelling Thai elderly.
2001
Objective
: To survey the prevalence of cognitive impairment m the elderly and to
estimate the prevalence of dementia in the community dwelling Thai population. To assess the
psychometric property of Thai Mental State Examination (TMSE).
Material and Method
: We conducted a countrywide survey of 3, 177 Thai elder! y
who were 60 years old and over from 1995 to 1997. Medical history and ability to carry out
daily activities were taken by trained medical personnel. Thai Mental State Examination
(TMSE) was used for cognitive study. Every elderly person involved in this study was
examined by either an internist or a neurologist. Blood was taken for haematological and
biochemical analysis. SPSS 6.0 was the main statistical analysis of the data.
Results
: Three thousand one hundred and seventy seven elderly people were
enrolled in this study, thirty eight point eight per cent were male and sixty one point two
per cent were female. There was correlation between age, education and TMSE (r=-0.345,
r=0.473, ppercentile in each five yearly age interval. Those who were under the 25'h percentile
of TMSE and had impaired daily activities were diagnosed as dementia. The prevalence
of dementia was 9.88 percentiles in our study.
Conclusion
: Dementia is a common problem in the Thai elderly. As treatment
has become available for several etiologies of dementia, early detection and assessment
Vol. 84 No.3
COGNITIVE STATUS IN THE COMMUNITY DWELLING THAI ELDERLY
409
of dementia with a cogmtive screening test are essential. Public education to distinguish
between dementia and old age needs to be emphasised.
Key word : Cognitive Status, Elderly Thai
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
0
References
16
Citations
NaN
KQI