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Clinical Trial
. 2018 Sep 15;10(1):93.
doi: 10.1186/s13195-018-0421-8.

Patterns of cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults-findings from the EMCOA study

Yu An  1 , Lingli Feng  1   2 , Xiaona Zhang  1 , Ying Wang  1 , Yushan Wang  1 , Lingwei Tao  1 , Yanhui Lu  1   3 , Zhongsheng Qin  4 , Rong Xiao  5
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Patterns of cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults-findings from the EMCOA study

Yu An et al. Alzheimers Res Ther. .

Abstract

Background: The principal aim of this study was to demonstrate the gender-specific cognitive patterns among middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults, investigate the risk factors on global and domain-specific cognitive performance in men and women, respectively, and report demographically adjusted norms for cognitive tests.

Methods: The Effects and Mechanism of Cholesterol and Oxysterol on Alzheimer's disease (EMCOA) study enrolled 4573 participants aged 50-70 years in three Chinese cities. All participants underwent an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Composite scores for specific domains were derived from principal component analysis (PCA). Multivariate linear regression models were used to determine gender-specific risk factors and demographically adjusted normative data.

Results: Three cognitive domains of verbal memory, attention/processing speed/executive function, and cognitive flexibility were extracted. A female advantage in verbal memory was observed regardless of age, whereas men tended to outperform women in global cognition and attention/processing speed/executive function. The effects of education on women were more substantial than men for general cognition and attention/processing speed/executive function. For all the cognitive tests, regression-based and demographically adjusted normative data were calculated.

Conclusions: There is a need for gender-specific intervention strategies for operationalizing cognitive impairment.

Trial registration: EMCOA, ChiCTR-OOC-17011882 . Retrospectively registered on 5 July 2017.

Keywords: Cognitive pattern; Cross-sectional; Gender-specific; Global and domain-specific; Middle-aged and elderly; Normative data.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study design was ethically approved by the Ethics Committee of Capital Medical University (2013SY35). All participants provided written informed consent at the beginning of the study.

Consent for publication

All the co-authors and participants have given their consent for publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study flow chart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Gender-specific age effects on a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), b Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA), c verbal memory, d attention/processing speed/executive function, and e cognitive flexibility. The x axis represents age in 5-year groups and the y axis represents the scores. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. Estimates are adjusted for level of education
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Gender-specific education effects on a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), b Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA), c verbal memory, d attention/processing speed/executive function, and e cognitive flexibility. The x axis represents education levels and the y axis represents the scores. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. Estimates are adjusted for age
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Gender-, age-, and education-adjusted norms of (a) Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), (b) Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA), (c) Auditory Verbal Learning Test—immediate recall (AVLT-IR), and (d) Auditory Verbal Learning Test—short recall (AVLT-SR). Gender-, age-, and education-adjusted norms of (e) Auditory Verbal Learning Test—long recall (AVLT-LR), (f) Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), (g) Digit span forwards (DSF), and (h) Digit span backwards (DSB). Gender-, age-, and education-adjusted norms of (i) Trail Making Test (TMT)-A, (j) TMT-B, (k) Logical Memory Test—immediate recall (LMT-IR), and (l) Stroop Color-Word Test Interference Trial (SCWT-IT)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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