Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease and Cognitive Dysfunction in Rural West Elderly Texans

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of cognitive dysfunction increases in elderly due to cardiovascular disease related risk factors in rural communities like West Texas. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to find risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) related to cognitive dysfunction and their impact on elderly adults in rural West Texans. METHODS: Statistical methods such as Pearson’s chi-squared and a multinomial logistic regression were utilized to analyze data. We used SPSS software to detect and understand the nature of the risk factors. RESULTS: A summary of statistics was obtained by using Pearson’s chi-squared test for categorical variables. CVD, diabetes mellitus, and depression were significantly associated with cognitive dysfunction for both males and females (p = 0.0001), whereas anxiety was found to be significantly associated with cognitive dysfunction for females (p = 0.0001). Age group and race/ethnicity were significantly associated with cognitive dysfunction for both males and females (p = 0.0001). By performing a multinomial logistic regression method and controlling for confounders, the significant risk factors (p < 0.05)— age (65– 84 years), diabetes, and memory loss for age-associated cognitive impairment; diabetes for cognitive impairment no dementia; age (65– 84, ≥85 years), CVD, diabetes, depression, memory loss, non-Hispanic Whites, and Black/African-Americans for mild cognitive impairment; and age, memory loss, non-Hispanic Whites, Black/African-Americans, and male gender were found for dementia. CONCLUSION: CVD related risk factors in developing cognitive dysfunction exist and integrating such risk variables may guide relevant policy interventions to reduce Alzheimer’s incidence or dementia in rural communities in West Texans.