Anxiety, cognitive performance, and cognitive decline in normal aging

A sample of 704 cognitively intact individuals (M age = 63.7 years) performed a battery of cognitive tests on as many as three occasions, at approximately 3-year intervals. The authors used random effects models to analyze cross-sectional relationships between cognitive performance and state anxiety...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2002-05, Vol.57 (3), p.P246-P255
Main Authors: WETHERELL, Julie Loebach, REYNOLDS, Chandra A, GATZ, Margaret, PEDERSEN, Nancy L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult. Elderly
Aged
Aging
Aging - psychology
Anxiety
Anxiety Disorders - complications
Anxiety Disorders - psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition Disorders - etiology
Cognition Disorders - psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Developmental psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Middle Aged
Psychological tests
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Risk Factors
Sex Factors
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Summary:A sample of 704 cognitively intact individuals (M age = 63.7 years) performed a battery of cognitive tests on as many as three occasions, at approximately 3-year intervals. The authors used random effects models to analyze cross-sectional relationships between cognitive performance and state anxiety and longitudinal relationships between cognitive change and neuroticism, after controlling for gender, age, and education. Cross-sectionally, higher state anxiety was associated with poorer performance on Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Synonyms, WIT III Analogies, Koh's Block Design, two measures of visual learning (Names and Faces and Thurstone's Picture Memory), and, for men, CVB-Scales Digit Span Test and Card Rotations. In longitudinal models, the main effects for neuroticism were significant for Block Design, Symbol Digit, and Names and Faces, but there were no significant interactions among neuroticism, gender, and time. These results provide some support for Eysenck's processing efficiency theory but none for neuroticism as a risk factor for cognitive decline in normal aging.
ISSN:1079-5014
1758-5368
DOI:10.1093/geronb/57.3.p246