Social and health disparities drive brain aging in Latin America

Research reveals the unique risk factors of Brazil, with education as the best predictor of cognitive decline, in contrast to other Latin -American countries where mental health plays a greater role.

Study: Social and health differences associated with healthy brain aging in Brazil and in other Latin -American countries. Image Credit: Mostortion Movies/Shutterstock.com

Published in a recent study in The Lancet Global HealthResearchers identified the factors related to healthy brain aging in people from Latin -America countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay and Ecuador.

Their findings emphasize that inequalities in health and social factors are more likely to explain differences in functional skills and cognition than demographic characteristics. Especially for Brazil, researchers discovered that education was a primary factor that influenced cognitive results.

Background

Encourage healthy brain aging is a priority for countries worldwide, so that people can live at any age. Brain health is generally assessed by investigating functional and cognitive skills.

It is influenced by gender, age and social factors such as support systems, level of education and socio -economic status, as well as lifestyle factors, health problems and mental health.

Researchers have found evidence of regional differences in risk factors associated with brain aging. In Latin -America, the contribution of various risk factors between countries and research varies that educational and social -economic differences can be more influential than demographic characteristics such as gender or age.

Brazil, the largest economy in the region, presents an important case study, because it has considerable socio -economic inequalities with regard to access to services.

An estimated 75% of the population of the country depends on the health services offered by the government. Although free healthcare is available, its quality is uneven, which has led to an increase in diseases to prevent.

The country is also confronted with high percentages of dementia. Hypertension, hearing loss and physical inactivity have been identified as risk factors by previous studies.

The demographic composition of Brazil, including indigenous communities and people with Asian, European and African descent, enabled researchers to study the impact of varied health -related and social characteristics on brain aging.

About the study

Researchers used machine learning techniques to identify risk factors for functional and cognitive decline in a large study consisting of cohorts from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay and Ecuador.

They stated the hypothesis that, as seen in other Latin -American countries, health and social inequality would contribute more to the risk of brain aging than demographic characteristics. However, they also predicted that the various background of Brazil could give rise to unique characteristics.

A total of 41,092 people with an average age of 70.8 were admitted to the sample. Of these, 1301 people came from Chile (on average 71.8 years), 1450 were from Uruguay (an average of 70.8), 5235 from Ecuador (on average 70.1 years old) and 9412 were on average from Brazil (on average 63.5 years) .

Based on classifications of the World Bank, Uruguay and Chile were categorized as a high income countries, and Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil were classified as countries with low and middle income.

To assess the cognition, researchers used results from screening tests designed to check for cognitive disorders, as well as skills such as temporary orientation, verbal fluency and the collection of words. Functional capacity was assessed by investigating whether the participants could perform daily activities with regard to mobility, care and dressing.

The social predictors in the models include education, socio -economic status, social isolation, sex and age.

In the meantime, health -related characteristics include symptoms of mental health (anxiety and depression), smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, falling, heart conditions, hypertension and diabetes.

Findings

On average, the participants from Brazil were younger and had a higher level of education than those from other countries. However, physical inactivity was also the lowest in this country and the symptoms of fear and depression were most pronounced.

The smoking percentages were highest in Ecuador, followed by Uruguay. Hypertension percentages were comparable in all five countries.

Brazil showed the lowest scores for both functional and cognitive skills. For cognition, the most important contributors identified by the model were education level, symptoms of mental health, physical inactivity, smoking, socio -economic status and age.

For functional ability, the most important factors were the symptoms of mental health, traps, heart disease, physical activity, diabetes, alcohol consumption, hypertension, education and insulation.

Within Brazil, the cognitive decline was the most pronounced in the northern region compared to the areas in the southeast, south and centrally in the Westers. Living in the northeastern region was identified as a risk factor for functional capacity.

Conclusions

In general, symptoms of mental health remained an important factor for functional and cognitive decline in all countries studied. Socio -economic status, physical activity and education, however, were important predictors. Smoking and alcohol consumption also had a moderate impact.

Although these findings are indicative, they were based on self -reported data that may be biased and contain limited screening aids for functional and cognitive capacity.

Interventions to promote healthy brain aging must be adapted to the region and take into account social and health -related differences.