Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology
September 4, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Malnutrition in Females and Anxiety in Males Predicts Mild Neurocognitive Disorder: Insights from LASI-DAD.
Satish P, Sandhya G, Issac TG.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
In older Indian adults, anxiety in men and underweight in women were independently associated with mild neurocognitive disorder.
What was studied
A cross-sectional analysis of 4,096 participants in the nationally representative LASI-DAD Wave 1 (2017-2019), using DSM-5 neurocognitive disorder classification.
Key findings
- Distribution of mild or major NCD did not differ by sex (P=0.077)
- Men: anxiety associated with mild NCD (OR 3.30)
- Women: underweight associated with mild NCD (OR 2.93)
Clinical relevance
Suggests sex-specific risk factors may be relevant to prevention research; cross-sectional associations only.
Who should care
Limitations
Cross-sectional design with wide confidence intervals.
Risk factors for cognitive impairment may differ by sex.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Background and objectives
Dementia is a debilitating neurological disorder and a major public health priority. Age is the strongest known non-modifiable risk factor for dementia, followed by sex. The objective of this study was to examine sex-specific prevalence and the effects of risk factors associated with cognitive impairment.
Methods
Data from Wave 1 of the nationally representative Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (2017-2019; n = 4,096) were used for this analysis. Neurocognitive disorder (NCD) was classified according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Editioncriteria, with participants categorized as cognitively normal, mild NCD, or major NCD. In the multinomial logistic regression analysis, two separate models were implemented: an age-adjusted model and a fully adjusted model that incorporated all variables found to be statistically significant in the first model, in addition to age.
Results
Of the 4,096 participants, 46.1% were male and 53.9% were female. The distribution of mild or major NCD diagnoses did not differ significantly by sex ( P = 0.077). In the multiple risk factor model, among men, only anxiety remained significantly associated with mild NCD [odds ratio (OR), 3.30; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.25-8.74; P = 0.016], whereas among women, being underweight was independently associated with mild NCD (OR, 2.93; 95% CI, 1.13-7.58; P = 0.027).
Conclusions
These findings suggest that the determinants of late-life cognitive impairment are sex-dependent and multifactorial, with psychological factors appearing more salient in men, whereas nutritional vulnerability may be more relevant in women. Interventions aimed at reducing cognitive decline may therefore need to be sex-specific.
DOI
10.4103/aian.aian_313_26
PMID
42696528
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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