Cognitive function in elderly women not improved with use of combined hormones.

2003 JUN 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Estrogen plus progestin does not improve cognitive function and may even result in cognitive decline for some postmenopausal women, according to a new study.

Stephen R. Rapp, PhD, from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and investigators from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS), an ancillary study of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) hormone therapy trials, analyzed data from the 4381 women in the WHIMS trial who provided at least one valid follow-up cognitive function score between June 1995 and July 8, 2002. A total of 4532 women aged 65 years and older were enrolled in WHIMS.

"Declining cognitive function is a growing public health concern for older adults, given the well-documented pattern of age-associated decrements in many areas of cognitive performance and the increasing proportion of elderly individuals in the U.S. population," the authors said. "The prevalence of age-associated memory impairment is estimated to be between 17% and 34%."

The participants received either one daily tablet containing 0.625 mg of conjugated equine estrogen with 2.5 mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate (n=2145) or matching placebo (n=2236). The main outcome in this analysis is global cognitive function measured longitudinally with the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE). "The 3MSE's 15 parts comprise 46 items that contribute to a total score that can range from 0 to 100, with a higher score reflecting better cognitive functioning," the authors explained in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "The test items measure temporal and spatial orientation, immediate and delayed recall, executive function (mental reversal, three-stage command), naming, verbal fluency, abstract reasoning (similarities), praxis (obeying command, sentence ...