A single-stage population-based study of the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment in children of secondary school age.

Abstract

Background: Various mild cognitive impairments in children are socially significant disorders that are often found in the practice of pediatric neurologists, but the apparent lack of epidemiological data does not allow us to judge the scale of the problem. 
 Aims: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of combined mild cognitive disorders in a large cohort of Russian children, 5th grade students at school.
 Materials and methods: The results of the examination of Russian schoolchildren of municipalities representing cities of all federal districts of the Russian Federation (RF) are analyzed. Cognitive functions were tested, which consisted of six subtests. According to the results of testing, using the method of assessing cognitive functions in population studies, the frequency of assigning participants to a high-risk group of combined mild cognitive impairment and the probability of diagnosis of combined mild cognitive impairment were evaluated. The analysis of the links between the breadth of results performed at the level of mild cognitive impairment, integrative cognitive success, the results of individual cognitive subtests with academic performance and the leading hand factor was carried out. .
 Results: 1,067 5th grade students at school were included in the study, 1,036 participants completed it, 51% of them girls. Belonging to the cluster of integrative cognitive successes and representation of the leading hand had no gender differences, subtests for visual-spatial perception/memory and constructive practice were better performed by boys (p 0.001 and p = 0.020), and girls, as a rule, performed better subtests for verbal-logical thinking and voluntary activity. attention (p = 0.050 and p = 0.051). According to the results of cognitive testing, a high risk of combined mild cognitive impairment was detected in 30.2% of the examined, and the probability of diagnosis of combined mild cognitive impairment was 7.5%. It was found that of the studied factors, the breadth of the results obtained at the level of moderate cognitive impairment and the effectiveness of the verbal-logical thinking subtest are more related to academic performance. At the same time, the strength of these ties was very moderate. The image of the leading hand was in no way associated with cognitive factors, including academic performance at the level of moderate cognitive impairment, but left-handedness was partially associated with better academic performance in literature.
 Conclusions: The results of the study, conducted for the first time on a multi-regional cohort of Russian schoolchildren, demonstrated a wide scale of the potential prevalence of mild cognitive impairment in children, and also revealed a number of patterns in the neurobiology of cognitive development.