Associations between asthma and cognitive functioning among older adults. Does the age of asthma diagnosis matter? Results from the RAND IFLS-5 study

Abstract

Objective

To assess the associations of asthma status or age at asthma diagnosis with cognition using the Telephone Survey of Cognitive Status from a large population-based sample. Further, we investigated the possibility that asthma treatment mediates these associations.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study from the Indonesian Family Life Survey Fifth Wave (IFLS-5) collected in 2014–2015. A weighted linear regression model was used to examine the associations between asthma and cognitive functioning scores in adults aged 50 years or older. Of the 6660 total samples included in this study, 176 participants had asthma (2.6%). We controlled for age, sex, and urbanicity with further adjustments for adult covariates or childhood covariates, as appropriate.

Results

There was no association between overall asthma status and cognitive functioning scores. However, asthma diagnosed at 0–19 years was associated with significantly higher cognitive functioning scores (Beta coefficient = 2.24, 95% CI: 0.62 – 0.87), compared to those without asthma. In the analysis involving current treatment status (restricted analysis), the significant association disappeared among those under current asthma treatment status, indicating that asthma treatment may mediate the association.

Conclusion

Asthma might not be a risk factor for cognitive impairment. Observations of a significant association of pediatric asthma with higher cognitive scores need further investigation. Understanding cognitive functioning among older adults with asthma may improve the surveillance of cognitive decline inthis age group.

Keywords:

• Asthma
• cognitive function
• older adults
• epidemiology
• public health

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Data availability statement

This study used publicly available data and can be found here: https://www.rand.org/well-being/social-and-behavioral-policy/data/FLS/IFLS.html.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the the Helmholtz Information and Data Science Academy (HIDA) for providing financial support enabling a short-term research experience at German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) – RG Psychosocial Epidemiology and Public Health research group, to learn and analyze data that made this original research making possible.