Assessment of Cognitive Reserve: a pilot study for Bulgarian Population

• Published in: European journal of public health 2019-11, Vol.29 (Supplement_4)
• Main Authors: Yaneva, A, Massaldjieva, R, Mateva, N, Bakova, D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Age groups; Aging; Brain; Chi-square test; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Cognitive tasks; Correlation analysis; Disease; Education; Gender; Information processing; Leisure; Life span; Pilot projects; Population studies; Prevention; Public health; Quantitative analysis; Statistical analysis; Statistical tests
• ISSN: 1101-1262; 1464-360X
• DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckz186.578

Abstract Background The Cognitive Reserve (CR) is a concept used to represent the individual differences in processing cognitive tasks, allowing to cope with the pathology of the brain. CR describes the individual brain potential as a result of various activities during the lifespan. The study of this construct could open one more “door” on the path to the prevention of diseases associated with cognitive dysfunctions in human aging. The objective of this pilot study was to assess the CR as a part of a project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of various options for stimulating active aging. Methods The Cognitive Reserve Index Questionnaire (CRIq) was translated into Bulgarian and was administered to 114 healthy participants (84,2% female and 15,8% male), aged 23 to 84 years (M = 52,40 SD = 16.81), divided into three age groups (up to 44, 45- 69 and over 70 years old). An individual CRI-level was calculated based on the subscores for education, working activity and leisure time. Non-parametric tests (Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U-test, and Kruskal-Wallis test) were used for statistical analysis. Findings The CRI-level depends significantly on age (χ2=31.834, (df = 6), p < 0.001) but does not depend on gender (p = 0.257). Significant difference was found in three age groups for the total CRI-score (p < 0.001), CRI-Education (p < 0.001) and CRI-WorkingActivity (p < 0.001) except for CRI-LeisureTime score (p = 0.547). The total CRI-score significantly correlate with CRI-Education (r = 0.863), CRI-WorkingActivity (r = 0.809) and CRI-LeaisureTime (r = 0.414). Key messages The CRIq is an easy to administer instrument that could help the assessment of the cognitive reserve in Bulgarian population. The cognitive reserve depends on human behavior through the life span and this fact gives new opportunities for prevention of diseases associated with cognitive dysfunctions in human aging.