Cognitive performance in older adults across Europe based on the SHARE database

ABSTRACT

With ageing mental health issues, as age-related cognitive decline, increase. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of cognitive impairment among older European adults and to evaluate its association with clinical and sociodemographic variables, using SHARE. Numeracy, temporal orientation, verbal fluency, and memory were the measures used to evaluate cognitive performance. From 44 963 individuals included, mean age was 70.0±9.0 years old and 56.3% were female. Overall prevalence of impairment was of 13.0% (temporal orientation), 24.8% (numeracy), 27.6% (verbal fluency) and 50.5% (memory). Men showed higher impairment prevalence in temporal orientation and memory and lower in numeracy and verbal fluency. Age, fewer years of education, difficulties performing iADLs, physical inactivity, and poor self-perceived health were independently associated with impairment in all cognitive abilities. These results showed the burden of cognitive impairment across Europe. Factors identified as associated should be taken in consideration to develop effective interventions to prevent cognitive decline.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognition, longevity
• active healthy aging, memory
• temporal orientation
• verbal fluency
• numeracy

Acknowledgments

This work used data from the SHARE Project, which has been funded by the European Commission through the 5th framework program (Project QLK6-CT-2001-00360 in the thematic program Quality of Life). Further support by the European Commission through the 6th framework program (Projects SHARE-I3, RII-CT-2006-062193, as an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative, COMPARE, CIT5-CT-2005-028857, as a project in Priority 7, Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-Based Society, and SHARE-LIFE (CIT4-CT-2006-028812)), through the 7th framework program (SHARE-PREP (No 211909), SHARE-LEAP (No 227822) and M4 (No 261982) and through Horizon 2020 (SHAREDEV3 (No 676536 and SERISS (No 654221)) are gratefully acknowledged. Also, this work received financial support from FCT through a PhD scholarship SFRH/BD/137090/2018 and FCT/MCTES through national funds UIDB/04378/2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the FCT/MCTES [UIDB/04378/2020].