Educational disparities in Brazil may interfere with the cognitive performance of Parkinson's disease patients.

Autor: Lima DP; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Geriatria, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Neurologia, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.; Universidade de Fortaleza, Faculdade de Medicina, Fortaleza CE, Brazil., Bonfadini JC; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Geriatria, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Neurologia, Fortaleza CE, Brazil., Carneiro AHS; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Geriatria, Fortaleza CE, Brazil., de Almeida SB; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Geriatria, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Neurologia, Fortaleza CE, Brazil., Viana AB; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Complexo Hospitalar da Fortaleza, Unidade de Pesquisa Clínica, Fortaleza CE, Brazil., Nogueira E Silva AC; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Geriatria, Fortaleza CE, Brazil., Roriz JS; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Geriatria, Fortaleza CE, Brazil., Braga P; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Divisão de Neurologia, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.; Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Faculdade de Medicina, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Dementia & neuropsychologia [Dement Neuropsychol] 2023 Nov 20; Vol. 17, pp. e20220084. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 20 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2022-0084
Abstrakt: The prevalence of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD) is about 20% to 60%. The Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) is the most used cognitive screening test.
Objective: To evaluate the influence of clinical and demographic characteristics, specifically the education level, on the MMSE score in PD patients of a northeast Brazilian sample.
Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 198 PD patients at a Movement Disorders outpatient clinic in Fortaleza, CE, Brazil. Participants were assessed by detailed clinical history, modified Hoehn and Yahr staging (HY), geriatric depression scale (GDS) and MMSE.
Results: We found that 68% of patients had MMSE scores below the Brazilian thresholds, which were based in Brucki et al. study (2003). There was a statistically significant difference in the bivariate analysis between educational level and cut-off classification for MMSE. More years of formal schooling were associated with more patients scoring below threshold. We found that 75%, 68.8%, and 79.7% of individuals with more than 11, 9 to 11, and 4 to 8 years of formal schooling, respectively, were below the suggested Brazilian Brucki's threshold. GDS and age were negatively correlated with total MMSE and all its domains. There was no correlation between disease duration and MMSE. Subjects with hallucinations had lower scores.
Conclusion: Most of the sample had lower performance according to Brazilian thresholds, but there was no control group and no neuropsychological test in this study. Further studies in northeast Brazil are needed to review MMSE cut-off values.
Competing Interests: Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Databáze: MEDLINE