Geographic Elevation and Cognitive Function among Elderly Residents in Rural Mountainous Areas: Shimane CoHRE Study

Tsuyoshi Hamano, Keiichi Onoda, Miwako Takeda, Kristina Sundquist, Shuhei Yamaguchi and Toru Nabika
Additional contact information
Tsuyoshi Hamano: Center for Community-Based Health Research and Education (CoHRE), Organization for the Promotion of Project Research, Shimane University, 223-8 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan
Keiichi Onoda: Department of Neurology, Shimane University School of Medicine, 89-1 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan
Miwako Takeda: Center for Community-Based Health Research and Education (CoHRE), Organization for the Promotion of Project Research, Shimane University, 223-8 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan
Kristina Sundquist: Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Clinical Research Centre (CRC), Building 28, floor 11, Jan Waldenströms gata 35, Skåne University Hospital, SE-205 02 Malmö, Sweden
Shuhei Yamaguchi: Department of Neurology, Shimane University School of Medicine, 89-1 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan
Toru Nabika: Center for Community-Based Health Research and Education (CoHRE), Organization for the Promotion of Project Research, Shimane University, 223-8 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-7

Abstract: The aim of this study was to test whether there is an association between elevation and cognitive function among elderly residents in rural mountainous areas. Data were collected in 2012 from a cross-sectional study conducted in Ohnan Town, which is located in a rural mountainous area in the southern part of Shimane Prefecture, Japan. Cognitive function was evaluated using CADi (Cognitive Assessment for Dementia, iPad version) and elevation was estimated by using Geographic Information Systems according to the participant’s address. After excluding subjects with missing data, 866 participants were analyzed. After adjustment for potential confounding factors, higher elevation was significantly associated with decreased cognitive function. This finding suggests that it is important to consider the physical environment, i.e. , elevation, that would affect accessibility to health-promoting goods, services, and resources when seeking to maintain cognitive function in elderly people living in rural mountainous areas.

Keywords: cognitive function; elevation; rural mountainous area; elderly people (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/10/13365/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/10/13365/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:10:p:13365-13371:d:57688

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().