Abstract
China is currently facing a severe challenge of population ageing. However, no study has specifically explored the association between social support and cognitive impairment in Chinese urban elderly aged 60 and older. We explored the prevalence of cognitive impairment and its relationship with social support among the urban elderly aged above 60 years in Jinan, China. A total of 522 urban elderly individuals were recruited using multi-stage cluster random sampling, of which 35.55% were males and 64.45% were females. The average age of all participants was 69.66 ± 8.91 years old. Social support was assessed using the Social Support Rating Scale. Cognitive status was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires. Descriptive analysis, chi-square tests, and logistic regression analyses were conducted. After analysing the data from 512 participants, 154 (30.1%), 352 (68.8%), and 6 (1.2%) participants had high, moderate, and low levels of social support, respectively. In addition, 125 participants (24.4%) had a cognitive impairment, while the other 387 participants (75.6%) had a normal cognitive status. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that age, educational level, occupation or pre-retirement occupation, and social support were statistically associated with cognitive impairment. A significant association between social support and cognitive impairment was found among the urban elderly in Jinan, China, which provided useful information for the intervention of cognitive impairment. More attention should be paid to the social support of the urban elderly to effectively reduce the occurrence of cognitive impairment.
Highlights
China is currently facing a severe challenge in population ageing
The Body mass index (BMI) results showed that almost half of the participants were overweight (45.12%)
More than half of the participants were engaged in mental-related work before retirement (51.95%), and 81.05% relied on themselves to pay for living expenses
Summary
China is currently facing a severe challenge in population ageing. According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the number of people aged 60 and older in China was 264 million, accounting for 18.7% of the total population on 1 November 2020 [1]. With the trend of population ageing, cognitive impairment and dementia among the elderly in China have increasingly become a public health problem. Among people aged 60 and older in China, there are approximately 15.07 million people with dementia, including 9.83 million people with Alzheimer’s disease [3]. Cognitive impairment and dementia increase costs for governments, communities, families, and individuals, leading to a decline in economic productivity [4]
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