Effects of nutrition, depression symptoms and demographic characteristics on dementia in the elderly population

Objective: Due to the increase in the elderly population, there is an increase in chronic diseases, infections, depression and nutritional problems as well as a decrease in cognitive abilities. This study aimed to investigate the effects of nutritional status, depression symptoms and demographic characteristics on dementia in the elderly population. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross sectional analytic study which took place between first day of April to first day of June in 2018 in three family health centers selected by simple random sampling from random numbers table in Konya, Turkey. Mini Nutritional Assessment normal (MNA) and short form (MNA-SF), Geriatric Depression Scale-30 (GDS-30) and the Standardized Mini-Mental Test (SMMT) was applied to 298 elderly people. Results: Mild dementia was found in 11.4% (n=34) and, depression symptoms were detected in 5.7% (n=17) of total. MNA-SF showed that 15.8% were under the risk of malnutrition while 2.3% had malnutrition. MNA-SF total score (p=0.004) was significantly higher in males than in females showing that there was more cognitive impairment in women than men. There was a significant relationship between the presence of dementia and gender (p=0.048), age groups (p=0.006), education (p<0.001), MNA-SF (p=0.012) and MNA (p=0.002). Conclusion: The frequency of dementia was higher in women, in low educated, depressive and aged ones and in those with malnutrition. Regarding dementia, depression and malnutrition in the elderly in primary care; it is important to use well designed specific scales to these conditions for early diagnosis.