Association between self-neglect and incident cognitive impairment among Chinese older adults and its subgroup...

Population aging has led to growing concerns regarding self-neglect and cognitive impairment among older adults. However, research on the association between self-neglect and incident cognitive impairment remains limited. We aimed to investigate the association between self-neglect and incident cognitive impairment and variations in gender and age.

A longitudinal study was conducted involving 2595 Chinese older adults from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) database. Self-neglect was assessed using 17 items from the CLHLS, and cognitive function was evaluated using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Participants with cognitive impairment at baseline were excluded, and incident cognitive impairment during the follow-up period was documented. Cox proportional hazards models, restrictive cubic spline analysis (RCS), and stratified analyses based on gender and age (with 80 as the threshold) were conducted.

The study sample comprised 1249 (48.1 %) men and 1346 (51.9 %) women, with an mean age of 79.7 ± 9.8 years. The risk of cognitive impairment was significantly higher for those in the third (Q3) and fourth (Q4) quartiles of self-neglect scores compared to those in the first quartile (Q1). The RCS analysis indicated a significantly linear relationship. The interaction between gender and self-neglect scores was significantly associated with incident cognitive impairment (P for interaction <0.001), suggesting that men are at a higher risk compared to women.

Self-neglect is identified as a significant risk factor for incident cognitive impairment among older adults, with a particular impact on men, highlighting the critical need to address self-neglect to prevent cognitive decline.