According to WHO in 2050, 110 million people will be affected by dementia. Ecuador will see among the diseases related to underdevelopment, those related to increased life expectancy. We conducted a cross-sectional study in a health facility IESS in Cuenca. 391 peopled signed an informed consent and answered a form to define the demographics and identify potential risk factors associated to dementia. The mental state was studied using the Minimental-test (MMSE) tool and comorbidity of depression by Yesabage screening test. Data was analyzed using SPSS 15 for Windows. The average age was 70 years, 84% were women and 97% of them live as urban residents in Cuenca. By applying the MMSE, 17.1% showed cognitive impairment with RR of 3.81 for ages 65 and older and female condition. Chronic diseases such as diabetes and arthrosis were the most frequent comorbidities with statistical association for risk; hypertension, COPD, etc., showed no statistical association. 40.9% of the sample group where possitive for depression showing serious nature in 37.5%.
cognitive deterioration
Principales factores multicausales en la epilepsia que inducen al deterioro de funciones cognitivas.
By studying a group of epileptic patients we try to know the low levels of intelligence quotient (IQ) and positive cognitive deterioration index (DI) and its relation to a group of multietiologic factors. Wechsler’s IQ and DI were used in the study with 130 epilepsy diagnosed patients that were divided into two groups: in the first one were those with CI < 89 and > 90, and in the other those that had either DI positive or not. These variables were analyzed according to biological, psychosocial and drug factors. The data was processed with statistigraphs as Fisher, Odds Ratio, and ANOVA. Out of the total of studied patients 52.31% had a CI <89 and 47.69% had CI >90. 52.3% of the patients had no deterioration and 47.7% showed deterioration index. The factors related to patients with CI < 89 were: past history of alcoholism, first seizure < of 15 years, seizures presented for more than 10 years, high frequency of the seizures, partial seizures with secondary generalization and phenytoin treatment.
Factors related to the DI were: alcoholism, high frequency of seizures, partial seizures with secondary generalization, association with chronic psychosis, treatment with phenytoin and a mixture of phenytoin and carbamazepine. Half of the patients had IQ < 89, and more than one fourth of them showed deterioration. It´s considered that although the deterioration, detected by Weschler Adults Intelligence Scale (WAIS), may not be visible, it is important to know its existence to diminish the risk factors.
