Differential Associations Between Religiosity and Cognition in the Korean Elderly With Alzheimer's Disease

Recent studies have shown the beneficial effects of religiosity on the cognitive function of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). We compared cognitive function among groups with different religious affiliations and investigated the relationship between religiosity and subdomains of cognitive function in patients with AD.

We recruited 247 patients with AD from psychiatric outpatient clinic. The Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD-K) was used to investigate different domains of cognitive function in patients with AD. Religiosity was measured using the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL), which assesses organizational religious activity (ORA), non-organizational religious activity (NORA), and intrinsic religiosity (IR). The cognitive functions of Christian, Buddhist, and religiously non-affiliated groups were compared. Additionally, hierarchical stepwise multiple regression was used to determine the relationship between ORA, NORA, and IR and the subdomains of cognitive function.

The Christian group showed better functioning in memory and constructional praxis than the religiously non-affiliated group after controlling for age, sex, and education, whereas the Buddhist group did not differ from the religiously non-affiliated group. ORA, NORA, and IR were significantly related to the Mini Mental Status Examination in the Korean version of CERAD (MMSE-KC), constructional praxis, and wordlist memory. In the multiple regression analysis, ORA showed positive relationships with constructional praxis and word-list memory, whereas NORA and IR were positively associated with MMSE-KC and word-list recall, respectively.

Our results suggest that the superiority in the cognitive functions of the Christian group may be associated with a high level of religious activities and IR that significantly influences memory and visuospatial ability in the elderly with AD.