Association between sarcopenia and neurocognitive disorders in older adults with hypertension: differences between appraisal instruments

Objective: To evaluate the association between sarcopenia and neurocognitive disorders in elderly individuals diagnosed with hypertension using different cognitive instruments at the Naval Medical Center ‘Cirujano Mayor Santiago Távara’ during the period 2010-2015. Materials and methods: Secondary cross-sectional analysis of the CEMENA Frailty Study database. Poisson regression analysis was performed considering each of the cognitive assessment scales to quantify crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and their 95% confidence intervals with robust variance. Results: In the model adjusted for all study covariates, having sarcopenia increases the likelihood of cognitive impairment by 1.55 according to the Pfeiffer questionnaire, by 1.21 according to the MoCA questionnaire, and by 1.34 according to the Clock Test. However, no statistically significant differences were found with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (p=0.306). Conclusions: In older adults with a history of hypertension, the detection of sarcopenia was associated with a higher likelihood of having neurocognitive disorders assessed by the Pfeiffer questionnaire, the MoCA, and the Clock Test, but no association was found when the MMSE was used.