Biomedical and Psychosocial determinants of Alzheimer’s disease among elderly living in India

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAgeing not only affects physical health but also contributes in decline of mental health of older people. Memory or cognitive ability is an important factor in health and well‐being of older adults. In India, cognition ability among older adults adversely affects many activities of daily living including quality of life. The neurological disease such as Alzheimer (or Dementia) has risen among Indian people age 60 years or above, due to various biomedical risk factors including disease mechanisms. This research has done to understand the psychosocial and biomedical predictors of Alzheimer’s’ disease among older people (60 years or above).MethodThis study has used the data from Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI). LASI is a nationally representative survey on various socioeconomic and health aspects of older adults living in India. LASI (Wave‐1) was done with a sample of 31,902 older people (age 60 years or above). Logistic regression modeling was used to understand the predictors of Alzheimer’s disease among elderly, while multivariate decomposition analysis was used in order to understand the contributing factors of Alzheimer’s illness among poor and non‐poor elderly.ResultAround 3% of elderly (60 years or above) had any neurological illness, while around 1.2% of elderly had Alzheimer’s (or Dementia). The prevalence of Alzheimer’s (or Dementia) was relatively higher among poor elderly, as compared to non‐poor. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s (or Dementia) was found higher among female elderly as compared to males. This study has found Education (years of schooling), activity of daily living (ADL), living arrangements, depression, MPCE quintile, access to health care, pension, self‐rated health and loss of natural teeth, as the predictors of Alzheimer’s’ (or Dementia) disease among elderly living in India.ConclusionAlzheimer’s (or Dementia) disease is a concern among India elderly as it affects overall quality of life. However, focusing on preventable factors (such as health financing, counselling) may help in decreasing the effect of this disease at some extent. Therefore, policy makers in India should consider on all possible risk factors of Alzheimer’s (or Dementia) for well‐being of elderly (especially poor or living alone).