Resumo

MATEU, Karen Aguilar; GUZMAN, María de los Ángeles Arrabal  e  JIMENEZ, Luis Felipe Herrera. Executive function in older with pathologies associated to the evolution of the cognitive impairment. Neuropsicologia Latinoamericana [online]. 2014, vol.6, n.2, pp.7-14. ISSN 2075-9479.  https://doi.org/10.5579/rnl.2014.0180.

Introduction: When older adults are affected by Alterial Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus they are prone to suffer cognitive impairments; both of them are characterized by neurocognitive profile with executive dysfunction. In that sense, it is necessary a better neuropsychological characterization of older adult. The studied components of executive function were planning, conductual control, mental flexibility, working memory and verbal fluency. Objectives: We aimed to describe the characteristics of executive components and identify differences between a group of healthy older adults and others affected by Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Methods: In the carried study participated 48 subjects from nursing homes in the city of Santa Clara. The selection criteria for both groups were age above 60 years. Having normal global cognitive performance, with MMSE > 23, not present alterations in the functional activities of daily living, this was checked by functional activity questionnaire Pfeffer, absence of depression for Yesavage Depression Scale, Clinical Dementia Rating, CDR = 0, having normal or corrected both hearing and vision. Distinctly were split into two groups of healthy subjects and other with subjects, which present at least one of the diseases with more than 5 years of evolution. Results: The executive function components more compromised were working memory and planning, whereas the more preserved components were mental flexibility and verbal fluency in its both phonological and semantic expression. Conclusion: Statistically significant differences between groups were not found but qualitatively the study reinforces the evidence that there are difficulties in tasks requiring high levels of attention and controlled processing as part of executive function in older adults being more evident for the risk factor group.

Palavras-chave : Older adult; Executive function; Cognitive impairment; Alterial hypertension; Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

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