Cumulative Exposure to General anesthesias and cognitive dysfunction at age 75 in the Vienna Transdanube Aging "VITA" study.
Some reports have described general anesthesias as a risk factor for dementia in the elderly. The authors investigated whether the number of general anesthesias during a lifetime was associated with cognitive functioning in the community-based age cohort of a geographical area of Vienna. Out of 606 seventy-five-year-old subjects, 43 reported not having undergone anesthesia and 113 reported five or more anesthesias. The number of general anesthesias was not associated with extensive psychometric data. Cognitive dysfunction at age 75 was significantly associated with level of education, a history of major head trauma, and having lived in a rural environment during childhood.
Fischer
Peter
P
Department of General Psychiatry, University Hospital for Psychiatry, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna/Wien, Austria. Peter.Fischer@meduniwien.ac.at
Wallner
Helene
H
Jungwirth
Susanne
S
Weissgram
Silvia
S
Krampla
Wolfgang
W
Bauer
Peter
P
Tragl
Karl-Heinz
KH
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors