Leisure activities and cognitive decline in a rural elderly Chinese cohort

African American females. 347 were aMCI (20.2%) and were diagnosed according to updated Petersen criteria (objective memory impairment, subjective complaints and absence of functional decline without dementia). Cox regression models were examined using mortality as the outcome and aMCI as the time-dependent covariate for nondemented individuals at baseline. Models were stratified to adjust for race and gender, and the common HR across strata is reported. Age was used as the time scale. Results: The overall death rate in this sample is 8.97%. Cox proportional hazard model stratified by sex and race shows that aMCI is a significant risk factor for mortality with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.21 (p < .0002). When stratified by race, the HR was 2.48 for African Americans (p 1⁄4 .093) and 2.16 (p 1⁄4 .0008) for Caucasians. Stratification by sex shows HRs of 1.62 (p 1⁄4 .13) for males and 3.00 (p 1⁄4 .0001) for females. The interaction effects between race and gender were not significant. Conclusions: aMCI is a risk factor for all cause mortality in elderly individuals. It appears to be a stronger risk factor among females. Underlying co-morbidities may explain the gender difference. Additional follow-up will be required to confirm the observed differences by race and sex.