Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY
Volume 17, Issue 11, Pages 934-942Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181b0f8df
Keywords
Smoking; cognitive decline; Hispanics; older adults
Categories
Funding
- National Institute on Aging [RO1 AG10939]
- Center for Population Health and Health Disparities at the University of Texas Medical Branch
- Robert Wood Johnson Network for Multicultural Research on Health and Health Care at UCLA
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Objectives: Few studies have investigated smoking and cognitive decline (CD) among older Mexican Americans. In this study, the authors explore the relationship between smoking status and cognitive changes over time in a large sample of community-dwelling older adults of Mexican descent. Design: Latent growth curve analyses were used to examine the decreasing growth in the number of correct responses on a test of cognitive functioning with increasing age (7 years with four data collection points). Setting: In-home interviews were obtained from participants residing in the Southwest United States. Participants: Participants were community-dwelling older Mexican Americans. Measurements: Cognitive functioning was assessed at each of the four data collection points with the Mini-Mental State Examination. Participants' self-reports of health functioning and smoking status were obtained at baseline. Results: With the inclusion of health variables and other control variables, the effect of smoking status on cognitive functioning was significant such that the decrease in the number of correct responses over time was greater for smokers than for nonsmokers. Conclusions: Smoking increases risk for CD among community-dwelling older Mexican Americans. There are numerous health benefits in quitting smoking, even for older adults who have been smoking for many years. Further efforts to ensure that smoking cessation and prevention programs are targeted toward Hispanics are necessary. (Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2009; 17:934-942)
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available