34 Association Between Subjective Cognitive Decline and Mental Wellbeing in Normal Cognition and MCI Older Adults

• Published in: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 2023-11, Vol.29 (s1), p.344-345
• Main Authors: Chan, Kayla Y, Lee, Samuel, Ju, Catherine H, Weaver, Destiny J, Ferguson, John, Hughes, Adriana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aging; Alzheimer's disease; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Executive function; Language; Memory; Neurodegenerative diseases; Older people; Perception; Perceptions; Poster Session 04: Aging | MCI; Quality of life; Spatial memory
• ISSN: 1355-6177; 1469-7661
• DOI: 10.1017/S1355617723004708

Objective:Subjective cognitive decline (SCD, i.e., perceived cognitive decline without neuropsychological deficits) is associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology and increased risk for cognitive impairment but is heterogenous in etiology and has been linked to other factors including personality and depression. Mental wellbeing (i.e., the perception and functioning of social, emotional, and health-related aspects of one’s life) has been associated with subjective memory complaints, but its relationship with other subjective cognitive domains is poorly understood. Further characterizing the relationship between mental wellbeing and SCD could refine understanding of SCD and inform development of interventions that prevent progression to objective cognitive decline. This study aimed to describe the relationship between mental wellbeing and subjective decline in multiple cognitive domains and examine whether this relationship differs between older adults with normal cognition and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).Participants and Methods:Community-dwelling older adults (normal: n = 58, Mage = 73.7±5.6; MCI: n = 43, Mage = 75.9±6.1) completed the Everyday Cognition scale, a validated self-report measure of SCD, and the RAND-36 Health Survey, a validated self-report measure of health-related quality of life which includes a mental wellbeing subscale. Spearman’s rank correlations were conducted between self-reported mental wellbeing and each self-reported cognitive domain (i.e., memory, language, visuospatial, and executive function) for the Normal Cognition and MCI groups.Results:Worse mental wellbeing was associated with worse subjective language and executive function in the normal group, rs(56) = -.42, p =.001; rs(56) = -.37, p =.005, but not for the MCI group, rs(41) = -.23, p =.15; rs(41) = -.12, p =.46. Worse mental wellbeing was associated with worse subjective visuospatial function in the MCI group, rs(41) = -.39, p =.009, but not in the normal group, rs(56) = -.11, p =.39. For both groups, worse mental wellbeing was associated with worse subjective memory, rs(56) = -.45, p < .001; rs(41) = -.37, p =.02. While this correlation was greater in the normal group, the difference was not significant (z = 0.38, p =.71).Conclusions:These results suggest that perceptions of mental wellbeing are related to perceptions of cognitive decline in multiple domains, and that the specific domains involved differ between normal and MCI groups. The differential