Education and cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease: a study of 102 patients

Abstract

To understand the correlation between low education level (EL) and the cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD). This is a cross-sectional study of cognitive function in 102 non-demented PD patients, from a special clinic (behavioral neurology) in a referral medical center. PD patients were divided into low, middle and high EL groups. We used the Chinese version of the Cognitive Ability Screening Instrument as a neuropsychological test, which covers nine domains of cognitive function. A full score is 100. When determining the abnormality rate of each item of CASI, we used age/education stratified normal control groups as reference to obliterate the influence of education and age on cognitive decline. Recent memory, language and attention are the three items in which there were differences between the groups, in terms of abnormal performance rates. The high EL group is at less risk of recent memory impairment, but at more risk of impairment in language and attention. The other six items and total score showed no differences among the groups. Thirty-eight percent of the patients had a total score below 1.5 SD of the means of the general population. This study shows that high EL exerts no protective effect on the cognitive decline in PD patients in general, except in recent memory. The rate of cognitive dysfunction in PD patients is high. This deserves more attention.