Cognitive Impairment and Quality of Life among Elderly in India

As per the census of India, the Indian population has nearly tripled in last 50 years and the number of older persons has increased more than fourfold. A significant population of the older persons is experiencing cognitive changes which lead to several cognitive health issues and affect their quality of life. Thus, the elderly population in India creates a holistic research base by looking at the dynamics of cognitive impairment and quality of life. This paper aims to examine level of cognitive impairment among the elderly in India and its effect on quality of life. The present paper examines change in the cognitive functioning of the elderly on the basis of score obtained for four cognitive variables (verbal fluency, verbal recall, and digit span (backward & forward). Better score signifies better cognitive health. Data from Study of Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE) WAVE-I, 2007-10 has been utilised in this study. A sample of 7150 aged 50 and above has been analysed by using principal component analysis (PCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The result reveals that cognitive scores for all four variables are very low. Hence with presences of low cognitive scores, the quality of life will reduce by 7% among elderly. Cognitive impairment significantly and directly affected the quality of life of Indian elderly.