Mental ability performance among adults with type 2 diabetes in primary care.

Aim and method The present university-based outpatient clinic, cross-sectional study assessed cognitive performance in a sample of 137 adults, with the primary objective of determining differences in cognitive performance as a function of gender and hypertension status in a type 2 diabetes cohort.Results Approximately 64% of the sample was 65 years old and younger, and 50 subjects had > 13 years of education. Global mental ability scores were relatively similar by age grouping, and higher-ordered cognitive functioning and reading literacy were strongly correlated, r (98) = 0.62, P < 0.01. Approximately 30% of the sample posted global mental ability scores in the slow learner range on tasks measuring attention, immediate memory and verbal reasoning. Males achieved higher cognitive functioning scores compared to females on multiple mental ability tasks. The presence of hypertension was associated with significantly worse cognitive performance compared to those subjects without hypertension, t = 2.11, P = 0.03. Approximately 57% of the hypertension group was classified as mild cognitive impaired.Conclusion While approximately half of the general population can be expected to demonstrate an average range of performance on cognitive ability measures, such an expectation could be inappropriately generalised to persons diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, even among those who were high school educated.