Population aging has been accompanied by worldwide growth in dementia. However, little is known about the prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment not dementia in ethnically diverse populations, such as indigenous populations conceptualized as groups of persons who self-identify as indigenous and who are recognized as distinctive communities reproducing ancestral, historical, and territorial culture. This is particularly relevant in view of increasing life expectancy in indigenous populations and, consequently, in the number of elderly people, as well as the changes in their multimorbidity profile. In this study, a systematic review of the literature on the subject "cognitive impairment in indigenous elderly population" in the databases MEDLINE via PubMed, Lilacs, and Scopus showed that the prevalence of dementia in indigenous populations between 45 and 94 years old, originally from different countries, varied between 0.5% and 26.8% for age 60 and older, whereas the prevalence of cognitive impairment not dementia varied between 4.4% and 17.7%. Early onset of the disease, older age, low education level, and several poor health conditions were associated with prevalence rates and conversion from normal to any cognitive impairment. Cultural inadequacy of neuropsychological tests was the main factor reported in the selected studies, which makes the investigation of dementia a challenge in indigenous populations. These data reveal that the prevalence rates of dementia ranged from low to very high for those aged 60 years and older, with early onset of the disease and elevated mortality rate after initial diagnosis compared with the current global prevalence studies, suggesting that these individuals may be more vulnerable to cognitive disorders. Cognitive reserve and exposure to poor health status throughout life span may be considered in the interpretation of results.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 October 2026.
All research outputs
#7,960,512
of 25,374,917 outputs
Outputs from Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders
#481
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Outputs of similar age
#122,221
of 367,269 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders
#10
of 13 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,917 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 67th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 991 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 51% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 13 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 23rd percentile – i.e., 23% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
