Association of Physical Activity, Depression and Some Demographic Features with Cognitive Impairments in an Elderly Population in Amirkola, North of Iran

Background and Cognitive impairment is one of the common chronic diseases among elderly people which has huge social and economic burdens on the society but few studies have been conducted in this topic in north of Iran. The aim of this study was to assess the association between physical activity and some demographic features with cognitive impairments in elderly people in Amirkola, Iran.
This cross-sectional study was a part of the ‘Amirkola Health and Ageing Project’ (AHAP) that was carried out in 1390 elderly in 2011-2012. To measure cognitive status, the Mini Mental Estate Examination (MMSE) was used. The Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) was also administered to assess physical activity levels. Data was analyzed in SPSS V19 using t-test, Chi-square, Pearson correlation, and logistic regression.
A total of 1390 elderly was studied including 763 (54.9%) males and 627 (45.1%) females. In this study, 421 elderly (30.3%) had abnormal MMSE and 1085 cases (78.1%) had low physical activity score. The mean of PASE was higher in people with normal MMSE (P=0.000) and a significant positive correlation was observed between physical activity and MMSE (r= 0.117, P= 0.000). Physical activity was found to be an effective variable on cognitive impairments.
This study showed low frequency of cognitive impairments in elderly with higher levels of physical activity. This correlation was more considerable in females.