Abstract
Introduction:: The Mini-Cog is a simple and short test that identifies cognitive impairment. Its detection helps provide an early dementia diagnosis, rapid access to treatments, and even delay or reversion. Materials and Methods:: This multicenter, observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study included 214 patients. Patients enrolled in this study were community dwellers aged 55-year-old, without prior diagnosis of cognitive impairment or dementia, with adequate hearing and vision functions. It was conducted in primary care health centers localized in rural communities of Ecuador. Results:: Ages ranged from 50 to 98 years and there was predominance of female gender: 66% versus 33%. The percentage of illiteracy was 26.4% (CI: 25.3227.48), and 63% (CI: 62.163.94) of patients had complete primary educational level. The overall prevalence of cognitive impairment was 50.9% (95% CI: 48.553.3) and 47.2% (95% CI: 45.249.2) in patients with risk factors. We found several established risk factors associated with cognitive impairment onset, including social factors, physiological factors, and comorbidities. Conclusion:: This is the first epidemiological research of CI in rural populations in this country using the Mini-Cog as a screening tool. Adopting public health measures for the prevention and control of those modifiable risk factors could reduce the prevalence of cognitive impairment and even its progression to dementia.
Copyright
Association for Helping Neurosurgical Sick People. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Derivative-Non Commercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit.
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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License, which permits unrestricted reproduction and distribution, for non-commercial purposes only; and use and reproduction, but not distribution, of adapted material for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original work is properly cited.
