Cognitive Impairment among Elderly in Urban Slums of Bangalore- A Community Based Cross Sectional Study

Background: Global population ageing is an important challenge and opportunity faced by all countries. The changing demographic profile has thrown many new challenges in the social, economic and political domains. The mental health being one of the neglected aspect of geriatric health in many parts of the world, plays a crucial role in developing Healthy Ageing. Cognitive impairment, an age-related condition, is often considered a precursor to more serious diseases such as depression/dementia/Alzheimer’s disease. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of cognitive impairment among elderly and to describe the pattern of cognitive impairment. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional community based study was carried among in urban slums of Bangalore, 150 elderly individuals aged more than 60years and who were not previously diagnosed to have any cognitive impairment were screened using Cognitive Assessment toolkit. Data entered in Epidata and analysed using SPSS software version 23. Results: The prevalence of cognitive impairment among the elderly participants in urban slums using GPCOG indicated that 8% of participants scored between 0-4, suggesting probable cognitive impairment and approximately 14% of participants scored ≤4 in MIS. 13.3% of participants scored below 4 in Mini Cog scale and 16% of participants scored above the critical threshold of 3.38, indicating cognitive concerns. Significant association was found with age. As age increases, there was a significant reduction in cognitive level and significantly higher prevalence with females compared to males (p<0.05). Conclusion: Significant prevalence of cognitive impairment among elderly individuals in urban slums with prevalence rates ranging from 8% to 17.3%. Each tool, including GPCOG, MIS, Mini-Cog, IQCODE, and AD8, highlighted age as a key factor in cognitive decline.