Cognitive Decline Among the Elderly: A Comparative Analysis of Mexicans in Mexico and in the United States

Abstract

Aging is typically characterized by progressive cognitive decline. With this decline comes an increased risk of dementia, making Alzheimer and other forms of dementia important public policy issues in aging societies. According to the world report for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia (Prince et al. 2015), there are approximately 47 million persons with dementia in the world, with 58% of them living in low- and middle-income countries. Poverty conditions, low education and reduced access to health care are some of the sociodemographic characteristics associated with the prevalence rate of dementia (6%) in Mexico (Mejía-Arango and Gutierrez 2011). Given the rapid growth and aging of the Mexican American population the number of elders with dementia is anticipated to grow at an alarming rate. The Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (SALSA) reported an overall prevalence of 4.8% in Mexican Americans aged 60 years and older and an exponential growth with age that reached 37.2% among individuals aged 80 and older (Haan et al. 2003).