Examining the cognitive performance of older adults in urban and rural regions of India.

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAging population is rapidly growing in India, with the majority of the older adult population residing in rural regions. Studies globally show a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment in rural regions than urban. With the lack of research on aging in India, there is an urgent need to evaluate the cognitive health of older adults in India to allow for their care needs to be met appropriately and promote healthy aging.MethodThis study used data from Harmonized Longitudinal Aging Study of India, Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (LASI DAD), which was developed by the Gateway to Global Aging Data. The sample size was nationally representative (n = 4096) of older adults aged 60 years and above in India (urban community = 1561, rural village = 2535). Given the heterogeneity of the population, adapted cognitive instruments were used. This study assessed if geographical residency (urban vs. rural) of older adults influenced their cognitive performance above and beyond demographic factors (i.e., age and gender) and education using a hierarchical regression in SPSS.Result18% of the variance in cognitive performance was accounted for by age and gender. 37% of the variance in cognitive performance was accounted for by the addition of education. Finally, geographic residency accounted for 1.2% of the variance in cognitive performance of older adults. Older adults living in rural villages had statistically significantly lower cognitive performance than older adults living in urban communities (B = ‐.218, p < 0.01). Women’s cognitive performance was lower than men’s (B = ‐.229, p <0.01).ConclusionThe geographic residency only accounted for a small proportion of variance in the cognitive performance of older adults in India. The majority of the disparity was accounted for by education, with older adults with higher education performing better. Despite that, older adults living in rural villages performed worse on cognitive measures than older adults living in urban communities. Older women performed worse than men. The contribution of factors such as depression, socioeconomic status, and cardiovascular health to the cognitive health of older adults in India should be explored further.