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Published on: February 14, 2014
Hormone use and cognitive performance in women of advanced age
J Galen Buckwalter1, Valerie C Crooks, Sean B Robins
1Department of Research and Evaluation, Southern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, Pasadena, California 91101, USA. galen.x.buckwalter@kp.org
Objectives:
To explore the association between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and cognitive performance in a group of elderly women (>/=75) using a battery of well-standardized neuropsychological instruments.
Design:
Equivalent samples from existing cohort.
Setting:
Healthcare provider organization.
Participants:
All women enrolled were participants in an ongoing study of the association between HRT and the prevalence and incidence of dementia. Prescription records were used to establish HRT status. Fifty-eight users and 47 nonusers of HRT participated in this substudy.
Measurements:
Given previous reports that HRT has a positive effect on verbal memory, the California Verbal Learning Test and the Logical Memory Test were used as primary outcomes. A range of validated tests that assess other cognitive domains was also included.
Results:
There were no significant differences between users and nonusers of HRT on any cognitive measures.
Conclusion:
Given equivalent groups of users and nonusers of HRT no support was found for the hypothesis that use of HRT improves cognitive performance in older women.
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