Mayo Clin Proc 2013; 88: 1222–1230
Research shows that elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD are nearly twice as likely as those without to have mild cognitive impairment MCI.
Balwinder Singh Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA and colleagues studied 1927 individuals aged 70 to 89 years .After assessment with the Clinical Dementia Rating, medical history review, neurologic examination, the Short Test of Mental Status, and the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, 317 17% participants were diagnosed with MCI. Of these, 229 72% had amnestic a-MCI, and 88 18% had non-amnestic na-MCI.
The team found that the 288 patients with COPD had a significantly higher frequency of MCI, at 27% compared with 15% in participants without COPD. The frequency of a-MCI and na-MCI were also significantly higher, at 19% versus 11% and 8% versus 4%, respectively.
After adjustment for a range of confounders, the odds for any MCI in patients with COPD were 87% greater than for participants without. The odds for a-MCI were also elevated for COPD patients overall, as well as when men and women were considered separately.
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