Falls and cognitive decline in Mexican Americans 75 years and older

Little is known about long-term emotional and cognitive consequences of falls. We examined the association between falls and subsequent cognitive decline, and tested the hypothesis that depression would mediate any falls-cognition association among cognitively intact Hispanic Elders. We used data from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly to examine change in Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores over the 6-year period according to number of falls. All participants (N=1,119) had MMSE scores ≥21 and complete data on Center for Epidemiologic Studies of Depression Scale, social and demographic factors, medical conditions (diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and hypertension), and hand grip muscle strength. At baseline, participants' mean age was 80.8 years (range, 74-109), mean education was 6.3 years (range, 0-17), and mean MMSE was 25.2 (range, 21-30). Of the 1,119 participants, 15.8% experienced one fall and 14.4% had two or more falls. In mixed model analyses, having two or more falls was associated with greater decline in MMSE score (estimate =-0.81, standard error =0.19, P