Influence of clinical and biological variants of premature aging on cognitive functionality

Abstract

Background: Currently, the development of gerontology as a related medical and biological discipline follows the path of concepts; there are three of them in classical gerontology: frailty, intrinsic capacity and resilience, and in preventive medicine – one – premature aging. The aim of the study: To study the features of cognitive functioning of people with various clinical and biological variants of premature aging. At the same time, insufficient attention is paid to cognitive and psychological functionality, which is largely the basis for the formation of resilience. Materials and methods: The study included 1214 people. All of them were divided into two groups. Subgroups were identified in each group, depending on the presence of a particular clinical and biological variant of premature aging. All patients included in the study underwent cognitive psychological testing. Results: The most risky options of premature aging are cardiac, cerebral, mitochondrial, menopausal (in women), andropausal (in men) and mixed variants of premature aging. Moreover, with increasing age, gender differences increase. In the 55-64-year-old age group with mitochondrial, andropausal, and mixed variants of premature aging, the cognitive vulnerability of men was higher than that of women. So, if in women in the 55-64-year-old age group with the mitochondrial variant in women, the MMSE test score was 28.2±0.08 points, then in men – 24.4±0.07 (p<0.05). In the menopausal variant, the MMSE test score was 27.1±0.04 points, in the andropausal variant in men – 24.2±0.03 (p<0.05). In the mixed variant, the MMSE test score for women was 25.1±0.16 points, while for men it was 23.2±0.16 (p<0.05). Conclusion: 55-64-year-old men and women are most susceptible to cognitive and psychological vulnerability in mitochondrial, menopausal (in women), andropausal (in men) and mixed variants of premature aging, and being a male further increases this vulnerability.