Objective: The purpose of the study was to explore the influence of health and demographics on cognition in adults volunteering as control subjects.
Design: 126, mostly elderly individuals, varying in age from 26-90 years, were examined according to a protocol used for investigation of suspected dementia including neuropsychological assessment of intelligence, verbal abilities, visuospatial functions, memory, executive functions, and finger-motor performance.
Materials and Methods: Subjective and objective health problems were scored according to customary clinical criteria of health by means of subjective opinion, medical examination, laboratory analysis, and neuroimaging and EEG recordings.
Results: The health assessment disclosed that 70 of the 126 individuals had minor health problems. Regression analyses disclosed poorer general health for higher ages and male gender, poorer laboratory status for higher education, and widespread influences of health on cognition in addition to more selective influences of demographics.
Conclusions: Many elderly adults volunteering as controls are not somatic healthy. Variation of health status in normal individuals has an influence on cognition in addition to demographics. Neuroimaging discloses those morbidity signs having most effect on cognition.
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