Cognitive Impairment in Rural Elderly Population in Ecuador

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.

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.

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: 25.32-27.48), and 63% (CI: 62.1-63.94) of patients had complete primary educational level. The overall prevalence of cognitive impairment was 50.9% (95% CI: 48.5-53.3) and 47.2% (95% CI: 45.2-49.2) in patients with risk factors. We found several established risk factors associated with cognitive impairment onset, including social factors, physiological factors, and comorbidities.

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.