Diabetes reduces the cognitive function with the decrease of the visual perception and visual motor integration in male older adults

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of diabetes on cognitive decline between the diabetes and non- diabetes patients and identified the associations between diabetes and cognitive function, visual perception (VP), and visual motor integration (VMI). Sixty elderly men (67.10± 1.65 yr) with and without diabetes (n= 30 in each group) who were surveyed by interview and questionnaire in South Korea were enrolled in this study. The score of Mini-Mental State Examination of Korean version (MMSE-KC), Motor-free Visual Perception Test-Vertical Format (MVPT-V), and Visual-Motor Integration 3rd Revision (VMI-3R) were assessed in all of the participants to evaluate cognitive function, VP, and VMI in each. The score of MMSE-KC in the diabetic group was significantly lower than that of the non-diabetes group (P< 0.01). Participants in the diabetes group also had lower MVPT-V and VMI-3R scores than those in the non-diabetes group (P< 0.01, respectively). Especially, the scores of figure-ground and visual memory among the subcategories of MVPT-V were significantly lower in the diabetes group than in the non-diabetes group (P< 0.01). These findings indicate that the decline in cognitive function in individuals with diabetes may be greater than that in non-diabetics. In addition, the cognitive decline in older adults with diabetes might be associated with the decrease of VP and VMI. In conclusion, we propose that VP and VMI will be helpful to monitor the change of cognitive function in older adults with diabetes as part of the routine management of diabetes-induced cognitive declines.

Keywords: Cognition; Diabetes mellitus; Elderly; Visual motor integration; Visual perception.

Fig. 1.

Effect of diabetes on cognitive function measured by the MMSE-KC in elderly men. The data are expressed as mean± SD. *P< 0.05 compared with the non-diabetes group. CON, control group; DM, diabetes group.

Fig. 2.

Effect of diabetes on visual perception measured by the MVPT-V in the elderly men. (A) Mean total scores of the MVPT-V. (B) mean testing times. (C) mean sectional scores. The data are expressed as mean± SD. *P< 0.05 compared with the non-diabetes group. CON, control group; DM, diabetes group; VD, visual discrimination; FG, figure-ground; VM, visual memory; VC, visual closure; SR, spatial relationship.

Fig. 3.

Effect of diabetes on VMI measured by the VMI-3R in the elderly men. (A) Mean scores in the VMI-3R. (B) mean numbers of correct answers. (C) mean numbers of errors. The data are expressed as mean± SD. *P< 0.05 compared with the non-diabetes group. CON, control group; DM, diabetes group.