Cognitive Decline and Self Rated Health Among Older Adults in Lebanon

Abstract

Several studies examined the factors associated with self-rated health (SRH), but few studied the relationship between cognitive decline and SRH. The aim of this study was to explore the association between cognitive decline and SRH of Lebanese older adults. This is a secondary analysis of data collected for a cross-sectional study conducted in 2013 to assess prevalence of dementia among a selected representative sample of community older adults aged 65 years and above living in two governorates, Beirut and Mount Lebanon. 419 older adults with no dementia who answered the SRH question and had data on cognitive decline were included in this study. Cognitive decline was measured using the Arabic validated Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the elderly (IQCODE). Results show that around 43% reported moderate/bad SRH and 8.8% suffered from cognitive decline. Adjusting for nine confounders, our results showed that the odds of reporting moderate/bad SRH among older adults with cognitive decline was 2.91 times than that of those with no cognitive decline (p-value=0.016). As a conclusion, this study findings suggest that SRH is strongly correlated with cognitive decline. Health care providers in primary care centers, neurologists, and geriatricians can use the SRH question as a preliminary screen of older adults’ cognitive functions.