ABSTRACT
Background of the study: Cognition has been known to be one of the major determinants of mobility. However, cognition is a complex phenomenon including several domains such as; attention, executive function, memory, visuospatial function, processing speed, language and global cognition. Aim: This study aim to describe the association and simultaneously explore the interactive effect of each of the cognitive factors on gait speed and life space mobility of community-dwelling older adults in Benin City. Methodology: This study was a cross sectional design that used multistage sampling technique to select the local government in Benin City while the town was randomly selected and participants were conveniently sampled. Data on demographic information, cognitive factors measure, life space mobility and gait speed were collected and analyzed using regression analysis with interaction effect in STATA Result: Three hundred and fifty nine older adults with mean age (SD) = 67.9 (6.8) years participated in the study, majority were female 85.0% (n = 305) and had some level of education; findings showed that cognitive factors were additively and interactively associated with mobility outcome. Executive function (𝛽 = 0.359, p-value < 0.001) and visuospatial function (𝛽 = 0.427, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 < 0.001) showed additive association with gait speed while visuospatial function (𝛽 = − 0.171, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.024) showed additive association with life space mobility. Simultaneously, executive function (𝛽 = 1.355, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.007), visuospatial function (𝛽 = 0.359, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 < 0.001), global cognition (𝛽 = −1.327, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.003), combination of language and processing speed (𝛽 = −25.221, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.003), combination of language and global cognition (𝛽 = 0.900, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.001), combination of processing speed and global cognition (𝛽 = 25.139, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.01) showed interactive association with gait speed while executive function (𝛽 = −0.686, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.01), combination of executive function and language (𝛽 = 0.645, p-value = 0.01), combination of language and visuospatial function (𝛽 = −0.180, 𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 0.016) showed interactive association with life space mobility. Conclusion: Cognitive factors had both additive and interactive effect on mobility outcome. Key words: mobility, cognition.
