Occupational History as a Predictor of Cognitive Ability in the Elderly

Cognitive ability is important for the elderly to be able to live independently. Many factors influence this ability in elderly, one of them being occupational history. The purpose of this study was to analyze occupational history as a cause of decreased cognitive ability. An observational analytic study with a cross-sectional approach. 87 subjects who met the inclusion criteria were recruited from Nursing Homes in Surabaya. 71.3% of the subjects have a history of physical-dominated occupation and 28.7% have intelectual-dominated occupation. There were no differences regarding duration of work and perception of workload in both groups. The average cognitive score is 18.57 (SD 5.939). The ANOVA test between occupational history and cognitive abilities shows p = 0.001, R Square = 0.172, and estimated standard of error of 5.501. This study concluded that occupational history can be used as a predictor of cognitive ability in elderly.