الملخص الإنجليزي
This study was conducted to find out the status of nutritional and behavioral parameters related to neurodegenerative diseases in elderly.The following study was carried out with 12 elderly of both genders (3 males and 9females) and 12 healthycontrols, at the Memory Clinic of Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Oman between September 2014 and June 2015. The study has specifically assessed the performance of elderly and normal healthy subjects on indices of nonverbal reasoning ability by using Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven), executive functioning by using Tower of London (TOL)and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST),malnutrition and nutrients intakesby using Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The behavioral status of the subjects to be included in the study firstly assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) as screening tools. The elderly group score was significantly different than healthy subjects in many of these indices. These significant differencesin the performance of the elderly and the control subjects could indicate that those tests are valid in assessing the elderly for mentalhealth and performance. The nutritional status of the elderly which was assessed by MNA and FFQ wassignificantly lower when compared to the control group. This could be due to low food intake of elderly people. The reduced behavior performance of elderly could be due to the lower intake of nutrients and the exact mechanism is still unknown. As the present study is explorative, more studies of this nature are warranted.
