Detection of cognitive deterioration in patients older than 50 years admitted to the Medical and Surgical Services of Roberto Calderón Gutiérrez Hospital in Managua, Nicaragua

Abstract

In order to evaluate the cognitive deterioration in patients over 50 years old admitted to the medical-surgical services in the Roberto Calderon Gutierrez (HERCG Teaching Hospital), in the period of  December 2015 to January 2016, an observational, descriptive, retro-prospective, cross sectional study was carried out. Two instruments were applied to identify cognitive deterioration, such as: MiniMental (MMSE) and Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE); and a third test, the Barthel Index, was used to evaluate the effect on daily living activities. The techniques used for statistical analysis were frequency and percentages, chi square, median, mode, standard deviation and percentile, depending on the variable. The following conclusions were obtained from the analysis and discussion of data: there is a high frequency of cognitive deterioration in patients older than 50 years admitted to HERCG due to non-neurological causes, representing more than a third of the study population (35.7%). A linear relationship exists between age and cognitive impairment. The most affected domains of cognition were attention, calculation and memory.

Key words: Mild cognitive deterioration, dementia, memory failure