The improvement of health care support has greatly extended the average life expectancy over the last 50 years, which
has increased the rate of cognitive decline consequently. The avoidance of risk factors such as toxins, stress and somatic
diseases can be protective against the reduction of cognitive function in the elderly. This study aimed to determine the
effects of socio-demographic factors, constipation and renal failure on cognitive status among 2322 samples who were
the non-institutionalized Malaysian elderly. The multiple logistic regression analysis was applied to estimate the risk of
such factors on cognitive decline in subjects. Approximately, 77.54% of samples experienced cognitive impairment. The
results showed that advanced age (odds ratio (OR) = 1.03), Malay ethnic (OR = 2.15), constipation (OR = 3.31) and renal
failure (OR= 4.42), significantly increased the risk of cognitive impairment in subjects (p<0.05). In addition, education
(OR = 0.38) significantly reduced the risk. However, we concluded that age, Malay ethnic, constipation and renal failure
increased the risk of cognitive impairment in subjects but education reduced the risk.