Assessment of population based cognitive impairment and defining associated risk factors in istanbul

World population and as well as Turkish population are ageing. Number of people over 65 years old is expecting to increase by the future years in Turkey. Dementia is age-related chronic disease which effects millions of elder people worldwide. In order to understand the dynamics of dementia for Turkish population, we have conducted population based study to evaluate the cognitive impairment and define associated risk factors. 200 subjects (female=95, male=105) have enrolled to the study from 4 different primary care centers in Istanbul. Socio-demographic, ACE-R (Addenbrook Cognitive Examination) and GDS-15 (Geriatric Depression Scale), FAQ (Functional Activities Questionnaire) and IPAQ-short (International Physical Activity Questionnaire) surveys have been applied to the subjects. Results found have been analyzed by using SPSS 25 package program. Independent t-test was used to determine the difference between two groups and one way analysis of variance (anova) was used to compare more than two group mean. Bonferroni paired comparison test was used in order to find the distinctive group between ACE-R score means. p value is smaller than 0.05 (p ˂ 0.05) was accepted as statistically significant. Study results show that low education level (p=0.000 and mean ACE-R scores respectively for 1, 2 and 3 education groups are 49.07, 67.83, 78.48), low household income (p=0.003 for the education group 2), loneliness ( respectively p=0.044 and p=0.047 for the education groups 2 and 3), sleep duration less than 8 hours (p=0.022 for the education group 2), mild depression (p=0.024 for the education group 3) and for the females in our study taking statins for treatment of high cholesterol serum levels (p=0.003 for the education group 3) have been found possible risk factors that may have negative effect on mean ACE-R scores. In contrast to these possible risk factors, having hormone replacement therapy (respectively p=0.023 and p=0.006 for the education groups 2 and 3) and depression treatment (p=0.009 for the education group 2) for females may have protective effect against cognitive decline. In conclusion, our results related to risk and protective factors should need to be investigated with further studies that include more subjects and cover entire cities of Turkey. Keywords: ageing, ACE-R score, cognitive impairment, risk factors.