Introduction: Cognitive assessment of older adults who are either illiterate or with low levels of education is particularly challenging because several battery tasks require a certain educational background. Early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the elderly using validated screening tools is of great importance since this population group could benefit from new drugs that are being investigated for the treatment of dementias. Cutoff scores for psychometric properties of cognitive tests are not well established among adults with low levels of education. The present study aimed to critically review the literature on cognitive assessment tools for screening cognitive syndromes including MCI and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in older adults with low levels of education. Methods: We conducted a systematic search of MEDLINE, LILACS, Cochrane, and SCOPUS electronic databases of cross-sectional and prospective studies with adults over 55 years of age. Results: We found a significant number of assessment tools available (n = 44), but only a few of them showed diagnostic accuracy for the diagnosis of MCI and AD in older adults with low levels of education: the Mini-Mental State Exam; the Montreal Cognitive Assessment; the Persian Test of Elderly for Assessment of Cognition and Executive Function; the Six-Item Screener; and the Memory Alteration Test. Few studies evaluated individuals with low levels of education, with a wide range of cutoff scores and cognitive test batteries. Conclusion: We found that a small number of studies evaluated adults with 4 years of formal education or less. Our findings further support the importance of developing specific tools for the assessment of older adults with low levels of education.
Authors' contributions: DAD: equal contributions to the design or development of the study; to the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; to the writing of the article and its critical revision; to the approval of the final version. LAB: design or development of the study. LON: approval of the final version. RGSP: writing of the article. OABJ: data collection, analysis and interpretation of data. JWLTJ: equal contributions to the design or development of the study; the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; the writing of the article and its critical revision; and the approval of the final version.
Introduction Long-onset COVID syndrome has been described in patients with COVID-19 infection with persistence of symptoms or development of sequelae beyond 4 weeks after the onset of acute symptoms, a medium- and long-term consequence of COVID-19. This syndrome can affect up to 32% of affected individuals, with symptoms of fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain, cognitive disorders, insomnia, and psychiatric disorders. The present study aimed to characterize and evaluate the prevalence of sleep symptoms in patients with long COVID syndrome. Methodology A total of 207 patients with post-COVID symptoms were evaluated through clinical evaluation with a neurologist and specific exams in the subgroup complaining of excessive sleepiness. Results Among 189 patients included in the long COVID sample, 48 (25.3%) had sleep-related symptoms. Insomnia was reported by 42 patients (22.2%), and excessive sleepiness (ES) was reported by 6 patients (3.17%). Four patients with ES were evaluated with polysomnography and test, multiple sleep latencies test, and actigraphic data. Two patients had a diagnosis of central hypersomnia, and one had narcolepsy. A history of steroid use was related to sleep complaints (insomnia and excessive sleepiness), whereas depression was related to excessive sleepiness. We observed a high prevalence of cognitive complaints in these patients. Conclusion Complaints related to sleep, such as insomnia and excessive sleepiness, seem to be part of the clinical post-acute syndrome (long COVID syndrome), composing part of its clinical spectrum, relating to some clinical data.
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