The Study of Neuropsychological Deficits and Quality of Life in Healthy Elderly People
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Abstract
This study investigated various neuropsychological characteristics and quality of life aspects of healthy elderly people. A sample of 56 healthy participants aged 60 and over was recruited from the Elderly Club, Sattahip district, Chonburi Province. They were divided into two groups: a younger age group (n = 28, age : 60 - 69), and an older age group (n = 28, age : over 70), each consisting of 50% men and 50% women. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. The sampling method was used stratified random sampling. Neuropsychological characteristics and quality of life were measured by a battery of seven tests. The tests included executive function (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test : WCST), Behavioural Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS), Stroop Color Interference, and Tower of London (ToL), psychomotor speed (Trail Making Test-TMT), memory function (Logical Memory I and II, Spatial Span and Letter-Number Sequencing, subtasks derived from the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III), and quality of life (Pictorial Thai Quality of Life (PTQL). The comparison between younger old, and older old was analyzed by using an independent t-test. Additionally, Pearson product moment correlation coefficients was used to examine the association between neuropsychological characteristics and quality of life.
There were significant age differences in executive function in terms of cognitive flexibility, problem solving, planning and initiation. In addition, the older age group tended to do worse in psychomotor speed of the TMT. However, no significant differences were found between younger and older old in memory function. Furthermore, neuropsychological characteristics were not particularly associated with quality of life. These results demonstrate that aging is associated with decreases in neuropsychological characteristics, including impairments in executive function and psychomotor speed. Hence, neuropsychological assessment is vital to develop strategies that control risk factors, and allow interventions aimed at enhancing or maintaining the individual’s performance level and quality of life.
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