Abstract
BackgroundThough extensive studies have been conducted on assessing the predictors of cognitive functioning among older adults in small community-based samples, very few studies have focused on understanding the impact of socioeconomic status (SES), demographic characteristics and other risk factors such as lifestyle and chronic diseases on the cognitive functioning among adults of all ages in a nationally representative population-based sample across low- and middle-income countries. This study, therefore, seeks to evaluate the impact of SES, demographic characteristics and risk factors on the cognitive functioning of adults across all ages in five selected developing countries.MethodsData from 12,430 observations obtained from the WHO Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) Wave 1; consisting of 2,486 observations each for China, Ghana, India, the Russian Federation, and South Africa, were used for the study. A meta-regression and a five-step hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze the data, with cognitive functioning as the dependent variable. Independent variables used in this study include SES; assessed by household income and education, demographic characteristics, other risk factors such as lifestyle, self-reported memory difficulty and chronic diseases.ResultsThis study found that SES and lifestyle significantly predicted cognitive functioning in all the five selected countries as obtained by the pooled results of the meta-regression analysis. The hierarchical linear regression results also revealed that demographic characteristics such as age, type of residency, and self-reported memory difficulty significantly impact cognitive functioning in China, Ghana, Russia, and South Africa.ConclusionThe findings in this study provide new insights for policymakers, caregivers, parents, and individuals, especially those in developing countries, to implement policies and actions targeted at improving SES and eliminating risk factors associated with cognitive decline, as these measures could help improve the cognitive functioning among their populations.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that by 2025, the adult population will increase to about 5.7 billion from the 4.7 billion in 2010 [1]
Risk factors associated with life course, with possible consequences for an adults’ current wellbeing and for their health as they advance in age, are expected to increase further the pressure on adults and the healthcare systems [3, 4]
The majority of respondents for all the selected countries were between ages 55 to 64, while the majority were currently married at the time of the study for all countries
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that by 2025, the adult population will increase to about 5.7 billion from the 4.7 billion in 2010 [1]. The maintenance of independence mostly requires physically and mentally draining tasks like managing active daily living. Such daily activities can be inhibited by declining cognitive functioning, including basic cognitive abilities like memory, learning, reasoning, and knowledge [5]. Though extensive studies have been conducted on assessing the predictors of cognitive functioning among older adults in small community-based samples, very few studies have focused on understanding the impact of socioeconomic status (SES), demographic characteristics and other risk factors such as lifestyle and chronic diseases on the cognitive functioning among adults of all ages in a nationally representative population-based sample across low- and middle-income countries. This study, seeks to evaluate the impact of SES, demographic character‐ istics and risk factors on the cognitive functioning of adults across all ages in five selected developing countries
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