The Impact of Cognitive Reserve on Neuropsychological and Functional Abilities in Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Cognitive reserve (CR) is an hypothetical construct that has been used to inform about cognitive aging and describe the ability of the adult brain to cope with the effects of neurodegenerative processes. The aims of the present study were to determine the association between measures of CR and cognitive and functional ability in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and assess CR using a CR questionnaire and set of variables (i.e., education, leisure activities, and lifelong occupation) that inform about CR. Functional and neuropsychological abilities were evaluated in 75 outpatients with a probable AD diagnosis. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected. The patients answered 2 questionnaires: Participation in Leisure Activities Throughout Life and Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire. The participants were evaluated with the following instruments: Mini-Mental State Examination, Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Revised, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition, Clinical Dementia Rating, tests adapted from the Lisbon Battery for Assessment of Dementia, the Barthel Index, and the Lawton and Brody Index. AD patients with higher levels of CR had better scores on cognitive tests than subjects with lower CR levels. This study found no association between the level of CR and number of years of AD evolution. The results showed that patients with high levels of CR might have better results on cognitive tests than other patients with lower levels of CR after a diagnosis of AD.