Associations of CR1, education, and occupation with high cognitive functioning in older adults: a Brazilian sample

Description

The study was conducted with 122 community-dwelling older adults with or over 75 years of age, male or female, with no diagnosed neurodegenerative disease in Southern Brazil (see Table 1 for demographic data). Participants were recruited through social media, the distribution of flyers, the snowball method (Vinuto, 2014), and institutional partnerships (the Federal University of Paraná, a local church, and private health practice firms). All participants were required to participate in the study in an autonomous manner (i.e. with no aid from family members or caretakers), and were excluded from the analysis if they did not manage to score at least one correct response to any conditions throughout all cognitive tests. Polymorphisms in the rs6656401 alleles A and G of the CR1 gene in the 1q32.2 chromossome were investigated. The genetic assessment was conducted with 60 participants. After the application of the exclusion criteria, 12 participants were excluded from the analysis, granting a final sample of 48 participants with genetic data.

Steps to reproduce

The exclusion criteria were: participants who could not participate without the help of a caretaker; could not understand the instructions; scored <18 on the MMSE (cutoff value for older adults with a low education; BVS Atenção Primária, 2022); presented significant hearing loss; with a history of moderate or severe traumatic brain injury; who were either currently under investigation or have been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder. After the application of the exclusion criteria, 20 participants were excluded, totaling 102 participants included in the final analysis. All participants lived in Brazil and 97.05% (99 participants) were born in the country. The remaining three participants reported being born in Paraguay, Italy, and Lithuania. All participants were proficient in Portuguese.

Institutions

• Universidade Federal do Parana

  PR, Curitiba

Categories

Funders

• Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

  Federal District, Brazil

Licence