Estudo exploratório da comparação entre aspectos hormonais e desempenho cognitivo em idosas

Abstract

Introduction: With increasing pace of population aging is a major challenge to create social systems to ensure quality of life for seniors. The occurrence of declining moderate aging is normal, but there are dementia in which this decline is sharp. Sex hormones have effects on dementias, and the women more vulnerable to disease than men and is a strong correlation between the decrease in estrogen and impaired cognition. Objective: Investigate the effect of cumulative estrogen exposure factors (contraceptive use, duration of the reproductive period, hormone replacement, number of pregnancies, breastfeeding, interrupted pregnancy, hysterectomy and oopherectomy) upon cognitive functions in elderly women. Method: The sample consisted of thirteen women who answered a structured questionnaire with demographic information and information about hormonal aspects. To the cognitive assessment was used the Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Instrument (NEUPSILIN). Results: The uses of contraceptive and hormone replacement are associated with better performance cognitive. Longer the occurrence of disruption in pregnancies and conducting oopherectomy and/or hysterectomy are associated with poorer performance on tasks cognitive. Conclusion: The cumulative estrogen exposure factors can help screening of people with a history of low hormone accumulation and search strategies which reduce the possibility of developing a neurodegenerative dementia or remedying cognitive impairment in healthy aging.