Influence of gender disparity in predicting occurrence of successful aging, usual aging and mild cognitive impairment

Abstract

Drastic population and social changes have led to the emergence of a new concept known as successful aging (SA), which upholds a positive vision of aging. Rowe and Khan established a SA framework, which comprised of higher cognitive functioning, no physical disabilities, lower likelihood of diseases, and a positive commitment to life, especially having excellent social interactions. Gender disparities in SA have been investigated in previous studies, which showed a higher prevalence of successful aging among men. Unlike successful aging and mild cognitive impairment, usual aging (UA) has no ‘gold standard’ definition and has not been as extensively studied. Vanoh et al. (2016) stated that usual agers are at higher risk of being diagnosed with chronic diseases, having minimal functional limitations, slight memory impairment and no dementia. In addition, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia, and individuals with MCI have a higher likelihood of succumbing to dementia. Gender specific risk factors for MCI were investigated in a small-scale local study and it was found that MCI was highly prevalent among women. Risk factors for MCI among women were being married, not exercising, and being either overweight or obese. However, large scale studies in Malaysia are scarce to investigate the gender disparity in cognitive decline. Thus, this current study filled the gap in the previous literature by determining the impact of gender on the occurrence of MCI as compared to SA and UA. This study was part of a large scale study, the details of which were published earlier.