Cognitive performance of Canadian seniors.

With data from the 2009 Canadian Community Health Survey--Healthy Aging Cognition Module, five cognitive functioning categories based on normative values that adjust for age, sex and education were created. The two lowest categories were combined to identify seniors (65 or older) without Alzheimer's disease or dementia living in private households, who had low scores on four cognitive tasks: first recall, second recall, semantic fluency, and processing speed. Low income, not living with a spouse or partner, and diabetes were associated with low scores on each task. Heart disease, impairment in instrumental and daily activities, receiving home care, social participation, loneliness, and self-perceived general and mental health were also associated with low cognitive performance, although the associations differed by cognitive task.