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Título

PREVALENCE AND CLINICAL ASPECTS OF COGNITIVE DECLINE IN INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY IN THE INTERIOR OF BAHIA

Resumo

INTRODUCTION: Aging, although inherent to life, is correlated to cognitive decline and establishment of comorbidities. This causes problems, such as forgetfulness; disturbances in attention, concentration and reasoning; physical dysfunctions; dependency; and institutionalization. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of cognitive decline in institutionalized elderly people in a city in the interior of Bahia. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional, observational and descriptive study, approved by the CEP, through CAAE No. 92726218.0.0000.8467 and carried out in a long-term care institution for elderly people (LTCI) in Teixeira de Freitas/BA. It included elderly people of the age of 60 years old or older living in the LTCI for at least 6 months. Elderly people with severe mental disorders were excluded. Questionnaire about sociodemographic and health aspects was applied, and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) for cognitive assessment. The sample is made up of 28 elderly people, which is higher than the estimated population for a confidence level of 95% and sampling error of 10%. Data were tabulated in spreadsheets and analyzed using the Jamovi software using the Spearman test, considering p<0.05. RESULTS: Most of the elderly were men (60.71%); browns (50%); coming from the interior of Bahia (100%); aged between 70-79 years (39.28%), ±76.5 years (SD: 10.6); institutionalized for at least 3 years (39.28%); without a partner (89.28%); with no or only one child (60.71%) and no schooling (57.14%). Systemic Arterial Hypertension was the most prevalent pathology (60.71%), followed by Brain Stroke sequelae (32.14%) and low visual acuity (21.42%). It was found that 89.28% of the sample showed cognitive decline. The main correlation identified concerns age, being moderately negative (Spearman's r = -0.424 and p=0.027). The most compromised domains, respectively, were 'registration' and 'attention and calculation', with r equivalent to 0.283 (p=0.034) and 0.394 (p=0.042), respectively, expressing moderate correlation with cognitive decline. On the other hand, the 'memories' and 'spatial orientation' domains showed less commitment, with r values equal to 0.615 (p=<0.001) and 0.510 (p=0.07). CONCLUSION: It was verified a degree of cognitive impairment in a significant portion of institutionalized elderly, corroborating national studies on the subject. Investigations are necessary to develop assistance resources to stimulate the affected cognitive areas.

Palavras Chave

Cognition; Mental Status; Dementia Tests;