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[Reading as a protective factor against cognitive decline]
Miguel Esteve Esteve1, Angel Collado Gil
1Agencia Valenciana de Salud, Centro de Salud Padre Jofré, Valencia, España. mglesteve@hotmail.com
Objective:
To determine whether reading is a protective factor against cognitive decline in the population aged over 65 years.
Methods:
We performed an unmatched case-control study in the Fuente de San Luis Health Center in Valencia, Spain. A total of 153 subjects aged more than 65 years old were studied, corresponding to 51 cases and 102 controls. Cognitive impairment was measured by the version of the Mini-Mental State Examination adapted and validated to Spanish. Reading habits were assessed with the scale of the Federación de Gremios y Editores de España.
Results:
Logistic regression showed a significant association with the habit of frequent reading for more than 5 years, complete primary school education, and age lower than 75 years
Conclusions:
Reading is a protective factor against cognitive impairment. This protection is greater in frequent readers with a history of reading of over 5 years.
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