Cognitive Function Status and Clinical Effects in Fibrotic Interstitial Lung Diseases

<bold>Introduction:</bold> There is not enough research on the effect of cognitive status on the disease in this patient group. In this study, the effect of cognitive function status and clinical parameters in cases diagnosed with interstitial lung disease was investigated. <bold>Method:</bold> Demographic data, functional evaluations and radiological findings of the cases were obtained from the hospital registry system. For the evaluation of cognitive function, it was evaluated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test(MoCA). Additionally, the Hospital Anxiety Depression(HAD) test and the Short Form-36(SF-36) test were applied for quality of life assessment. <bold>Results:</bold> The mean age of 62 cases diagnosed with ILD included in the study was 63.4±10.1 (42-84) years, and 41(66.1%) were women. The cut-off score of the MoCA test for cognitive dysfunction is 21, and the mean of our cases was determined as 18.4±5.8(range 4-30). In the sub-analyses, it was determined that cognitive dysfunction were worse at older ages, and anxiety assessed by HAD was observed more in the group with impaired cognitive function. No difference was detected in comorbidities, FVC %predicted, DLCO%, 6-MWT, GAP score and quality of life tests evaluated with SF-36 between cognitive impairement and normal cognitive function groups. <bold>Discussion:</bold> In this study, which is one of the few studies investigating cognitive dysfunction in ILD cases, it was determined that cognitive function was impaired and anxiety was more common in older patients when evaluated with MGD. Cognitive dysfunction should be taken into consideration and further research should be planned as it may impair the compliance of the patients with their follow-up and treatment.