Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T13:14:40.213Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Positive Psychosocial Factors and Cognitive Decline in Ethnically Diverse Older Adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2020

Laura B. Zahodne Open the ORCID record for Laura B. Zahodne [Opens in a new window] ,
Neika Sharifian Open the ORCID record for Neika Sharifian [Opens in a new window] ,
Ann Zarina Kraal ,
Ketlyne Sol ,
Afsara B. Zaheed Open the ORCID record for Afsara B. Zaheed [Opens in a new window] ,
Jennifer J. Manly  and
Adam M. Brickman Open the ORCID record for Adam M. Brickman [Opens in a new window]
Laura B. Zahodne*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109, USA
Neika Sharifian
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109, USA
Ann Zarina Kraal
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109, USA
Ketlyne Sol
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109, USA
Afsara B. Zaheed
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109, USA
Jennifer J. Manly
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY10032, USA
Adam M. Brickman
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY10032, USA
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Laura B. Zahodne, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI48104, USA. Email: lzahodne@umich.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives:

Previous cross-sectional studies have documented associations between positive psychosocial factors, such as self-efficacy and emotional support, and late-life cognition. Further, the magnitudes of concurrent associations may differ across racial and ethnic groups that differ in Alzheimer’s disease risk. The goals of this longitudinal study were to characterize prospective associations between positive psychosocial factors and cognitive decline and explicitly test for differential impact across race and ethnicity.

Methods:

578 older adults (42% non-Hispanic Black, 31% non-Hispanic White, and 28% Hispanic) in the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project completed cognitive and psychosocial measures from the NIH Toolbox and standard neuropsychological tests over 2.4 years. Latent difference scores were used to model associations between positive psychosocial factors and cognitive decline controlling for baseline cognition, sociodemographics, depressive symptoms, physical health, and other positive psychosocial factors. Multiple-group modeling was used to test interactions between the positive psychosocial factors and race/ethnicity.

Results:

Higher NIH Toolbox Friendship scores predicted less episodic memory decline. One standard deviation increase in friendship corresponded to 6 fewer years of memory aging. This association did not significantly differ across racial/ethnic groups.

Conclusions:

This longitudinal study provides support for the potential importance of friendships for subsequent episodic memory trajectories among older adults from three ethnic groups. Further study into culturally informed interventions is needed to investigate whether and how friend networks may be targeted to promote cognitive health in late life.

Keywords

Social networksFriendsCognitive agingAfrican AmericanHispanic
Type
Regular Research
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 69 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © INS. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ardelt, M. & Ferrari, M. (2019). Effects of wisdom and religiosity on subjective well-being in old age and young adulthood: Exploring the pathways through mastery and purpose in life. International Psychogeriatrics, 31(4), 477–489. doi: 10.1017/S1041610218001680CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backman, L., Small, B.J., & Fratiglioni, L. (2001). Stability of the preclinical episodic memory deficit in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain, 124(1), 96–102. doi: 10.1093/brain/124.1.96CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baltes, P.B. & Nesselroade, J.R. (1979). The developmental analysis of individual differences on multiple measures. In Nesselroade, J.R. & Reese, H.W. (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: methodological issues (pp. 1–40). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1989). Regulation of cognitive processes through perceived self-efficacy. Developmental Psychology, 25(5), 729–735. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.25.5.729CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, A.L. (1955). The revised visual retention test: Clinical and experimental applications. New York: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Buschke, H. & Fuld, P.A. (1974). Evaluating storage, retention, and retrieval in disordered memory and learning. Neurology, 24, 1919–1025.10.1212/WNL.24.11.1019CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Casaletto, K.B., Umlauf, A., Marquine, M., Beaumont, J.L., Mungas, D., Gershon, R., … Heaton, R.K. (2016). Demographically corrected normative standards for the spanish language version of the NIH toolbox cognition battery. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 22(3), 364–374. doi: 10.1017/S135561771500137XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crohan, S.E. & Antonucci, T.C. (1989). Friends as a source of social support in old age. In Adams, R.G. & Blieszner, R. (Eds.), Older adult friendship: Structure and process (pp. 129–146). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
Diniz, B.S., Butters, M.A., Albert, S.M., Dew, M.A., & Reynolds, C.F. (2013). Late-life depression and risk of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: Systematic review and meta-analysis of community-based cohort studies. British Journal of Psychiatry. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.112.118307CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, H.H., Zhu, J., Mattek, N., Bowman, M., Ybarra, O., Wild, K., … Kaye, J.A. (2015). Web-enabled conversational interactions as a means to improve cognitive functions: Results of a 6-week randomized controlled trial. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 1(1), 1–12. doi: 10.1016/j.trci.2015.01.001Google ScholarPubMed
Fuller-Iglesias, H.R., Webster, N.J., & Antonucci, T.C. (2015). The complex nature of family support across the life span: Implications for psychological well-being. Developmental Psychology, 51(3), 277–288. doi: 10.1037/a0038665CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haslam, C., Cruwys, T., & Haslam, S.A. (2014). “The we’s have it”: Evidence for the distinctive benefits of group engagement in enhancing cognitive health in aging. Social Science & Medicine, 120, 57–66. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.037CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huxhold, O., Miche, M., & Schüz, B. (2014). Benefits of having friends in older ages: Differential effects of informal social activities on well-being in middle-aged and older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 69(3), 366–375. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbt029CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irwin, M., Artin, K.H., & Oxman, M.N. (1999). Screening for depression in the older adult. Archives of Internal Medicine, 159(15), 1701. doi: 10.1001/archinte.159.15.1701CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraal, A.Z., Sharifian, N., Zaheed, A.B., Sol, K., & Zahodne, L.B. (2019). Dimensions of religious involvement represent positive pathways in cognitive aging. Research on Aging, 016402751986274. doi: 10.1177/0164027519862745Google ScholarPubMed
Larson, R., Mannell, R., & Zuzanek, J. (1986). Daily well-being of older adults with friends and family. Psychology and Aging, 1(2), 117–126. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.1.2.117CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manly, J.J., Bell-McGinty, S., Tang, M.-X., Schupf, N., Stern, Y., & Mayeux, R. (2005). Implementing diagnostic criteria and estimating frequency of mild cognitive impairment in an urban community. Archives of Neurology, 62(11), 1739. doi: 10.1001/archneur.62.11.1739CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattis, S. (1976). Mental status examination for organic mental syndrome in the elderly patient. In Bellack, L. & Karusus, T.B. (Eds.), Geriatric psychiatry, (pp. 77–121). New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
McArdle, J.J. (2009). Latent variable modeling of differences and changes with longitudinal data. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 577–605. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163612CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McArdle, J.J. & Nesselroade, J. (1994). Structuring data to study development and change. In Cohen, S.H. & Reese, H.W. (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Methodological innovations, (pp. 223–268). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Mungas, D., Heaton, R., Tulsky, D., Zelazo, P.D., Slotkin, J., Blitz, D., … Gershon, R. (2014). Factor structure, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the NIH toolbox cognitive health battery (NIHTB-CHB) in adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 20, 579–587. doi: 10.1017/S1355617714000307CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ownby, R.L., Crocco, E., Acevedo, A., John, V., & Loewenstein, D. (2006). Depression and risk for Alzheimer disease. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(5), 530–538. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.63.5.530CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritchie, S.J., Gow, A.J., & Deary, I.J. (2014). Religiosity is negatively associated with later-life intelligence, but not with age-related cognitive decline. Intelligence, 46(1), 9–17. doi: 10.1016/j.intell.2014.04.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, S.B.G. & Dunbar, R.I.M. (2011). Communication in social networks: Effects of kinship, network size, and emotional closeness. Personal Relationships, 18(3), 439–452. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01310.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, S.B.G. & Dunbar, R.I.M. (2015). Managing relationship decay. Human Nature, 26(4), 426–450. doi: 10.1007/s12110-015-9242-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosen, W. (1981). The rosen drawing test. Bronx, NY: Veterans Administration Medical Center.Google Scholar
Rowe, J.W. & Kahn, R.L. (1998). Successful aging. New York: Random House/Pantheon.Google ScholarPubMed
Salsman, J.M., Butt, Z., Pilkonis, P.A., Cyranowski, J.M., Zill, N., Hendrie, H.C., … Cella, D. (2013). Emotion assessment using the NIH Toolbox. Neurology, 80(11 Suppl 3), S76–S86. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0B013E3182872E11CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaie, K.W. (1965). A general model for the study of developmental problems. Psychological Bulletin, 64(2), 92–107. doi: 10.1037/h0022371CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaie, K.W. (1983). What can we learn from the longitudinal study of adult psychological development? In Schaie, K.W. (Ed.), Longitudinal studies of adult psychological development (pp. 1–19). New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Seeman, T.E., Lusignolo, T.M., Albert, M., & Berkman, L. (2001). Social relationships, social support, and patterns of cognitive aging in healthy, high-functioning older adults: MacArthur studies of successful aging. Health Psychology. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.20.4.243CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seeman, T.E., McAvay, G., Merrill, S., Albert, M., & Rodin, J. (1996). Self-efficacy beliefs and change in cognitive performance: MacArthur studies on successful aging. Psychology and Aging, 11(3), 538–551. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.11.3.538CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sharifian, N., Kraal, A.Z., Zaheed, A.B., Sol, K., & Zahodne, L.B. (2020a). Longitudinal associations between contact frequency with friends and family, activity engagement, and cognitive functioning in later life. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. doi: 10.1017/S1355617720000259. Online ahead of print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharifian, N., Kraal, A.Z., Zaheed, A.B., Sol, K., & Zahodne, L.B. (2020b). The longitudinal association between social network composition and episodic memory in older adulthood: the importance of social engagement with friends. Aging and Mental Health. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2019.1660850CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharifian, N., Manly, J.J., Brickman, A.M., & Zahodne, L.B. (2019). Social network characteristics and cognitive functioning in ethnically diverse older adults: the role of network size and composition. Neuropsychology. doi: 10.1037/neu0000564CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sherman, A.M., De Vries, B., & Lansford, J.E. (2000). Friendship in childhood and adulthood: lessons across the lifespan. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 51(1), 31–51. doi: 10.2190/4QFV-D52D-TPYP-RLM6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siedlecki, K.L., Manly, J.J., Brickman, A.M., Schupf, N., Tang, M.-X., & Stern, Y. (2010). Do neuropsychological tests have the same meaning in Spanish speakers as they do in English speakers? Neuropsychology, 24(3), 402–411. doi: 10.1037/a0017515CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, B.M., Yao, X., Chen, K.S., & Kirby, E.D. (2018). A larger social network enhances novel object location memory and reduces hippocampal microgliosis in aged mice. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 10, 142. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00142CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stern, Y., Andrews, H., Pittman, J., Sano, M., Tatemichi, T., Lantigua, R., & Mayeux, R. (1992). Diagnosis of dementia in a heterogeneous population. Archives of Neurology, 49(5), 453. doi: 10.1001/archneur.1992.00530290035009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, M.X., Cross, P., Andrews, H., Jacobs, D.M., Small, S., Bell, K., … Mayeux, R. (2001). Incidence of AD in African-Americans, Caribbean Hispanics, and Caucasians in Northern Manhattan. Neurology, 56(1), 49–56. doi: 10.1212/WNL.56.1.49CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van der Horst, M. & Coffé, H. (2012). How friendship network characteristics influence subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 107(3), 509–529. doi: 10.1007/s11205-011-9861-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weintraub, S., Dikmen, S.S., Heaton, R.K., Tulsky, D.S., Zelazo, P.D., Bauer, P.J., … Gershon, R.C. (2013). Cognition assessment using the NIH Toolbox. Neurology, 80(11 Suppl 3), S54–S64. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182872dedCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolinsky, F.D., Vander Weg, M.W., Martin, R., Unverzagt, F.W., Willis, S.L., Marsiske, M., … Tennstedt, S.L. (2010). Does cognitive training improve internal locus of control among older adults? The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 65B(5), 591–598. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbp117CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahodne, L.B., Ajrouch, K.J., Sharifian, N., & Antonucci, T.C. (2019). Social relations and age-related change in memory. Psychology and Aging. doi: 10.1037/pag0000369CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahodne, L.B., Nowinski, C.J., Gershon, R.C., & Manly, J.J. (2014). Depressive symptoms are more strongly related to executive functioning and episodic memory among African American compared with non-Hispanic White older adults. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 29(7), 663–669. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acu045CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahodne, L.B., Stern, Y., & Manly, J.J. (2014). Depressive symptoms precede memory decline, but not vice versa, in non-demented older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(1), 130–134. doi: 10.1111/jgs.12600CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahodne, L.B., Watson, C., Seehra, S., & Martinez, M.N. (2018). Positive psychosocial factors and cognition in ethnically diverse older adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 24, 294–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Zahodne et al. Supplementary Materials

Zahodne et al. Supplementary Materials

Download Zahodne et al. Supplementary Materials(File)
File 29.5 KB