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17 Emotional and Instrumental Support as Protective Factors in Cognitive Aging Among Black and Hispanic/Latinx Older Adults
- Emily P Morris, A. Zarina Kraal, Shellie-Anne Levy, Franchesca Arias, Ruijia Chen, Dominika Seblova, Marcia P. Jimenez, Mateo Farina, Zvinka Zlatar, Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, Yi Lor, Evan Fletcher, Jennifer J. Manly, Maria Glymour
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 330-331
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Objective:
Social support may protect against Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), potentially through emotional or instrumental support elements. Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults bear a disproportionate burden of ADRD. However, independent effects of emotional and instrumental support on cognition, a primary indicator of ADRD risk, are largely understudied in these groups. Guided by the differential vulnerability hypothesis – the theoretical framework which posits that systemic racism disadvantages Black and Hispanic/Latinx individuals’ health – we hypothesize that emotional and instrumental support may be particularly important to protect against worse cognition for Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults, who often have fewer resources due to these inequalities (e.g., wealth, educational opportunities) to otherwise maintain health. Using the NIH Toolbox Emotion Module measures of emotional (e.g., the extent to which individuals can rely on others in challenging times) and instrumental support (e.g., the extent to which individuals can rely on others for assistance in daily activities), we aimed to identify positive social support factors (i.e., emotional and instrumental support) that may protect against ADRD risk (i.e., longitudinal executive function and memory performance) among Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults.
Participants and Methods:Participants were 362 Black and 265 Hispanic/Latinx adults aged 65-89 (63% female, average age=75) from the Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences (KHANDLE) Study who completed baseline and up to two additional waves of assessments (every 1.5 years), including questionnaires, neuropsychological evaluations, and the NIH toolbox. Predictors included baseline covariates (i.e., age, language of test administration, gender, education, income, self-rated health) and NIH toolbox emotional and instrumental support variables. Outcomes were baseline and longitudinal memory (visual and verbal episodic memory) and executive functioning (verbal fluency and working memory) composites from the Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales (SENAS). Latent growth curve models were conducted separately in Black and Hispanic/Latinx participants to estimate effects of emotional and instrumental support on baseline cognition and subsequent change in each domain.
Results:Black participants reported greater emotional support. There were no group differences in levels of instrumental support. Greater instrumental support was associated with better initial memory (standardized β= .194, 95%CI: [.063, .325]) among Black participants but not among Hispanic/Latinx participants. In Hispanic/Latinx participants, greater emotional support was associated with better initial executive functioning (standardized β= .215, 95%CI: [.079, .350]. Emotional support was not associated with either cognitive domain in Black participants. There were no associations between emotional or instrumental support on cognitive change in either group.
Conclusions:Results point to differences between Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults in the impact of specific aspects of social support on different cognitive domains. Positive associations between instrumental support and baseline memory in Black participants and between emotional support and executive functioning in Hispanic/Latinx participants suggest unique cognitive consequences of social support across groups. Differences in the role of specific types of social supports may be useful in identifying intervention targets specifically for Black and Hispanic/Latinx older adults, who are disproportionately affected by ADRD. Future research will examine these constructs using multiple group models to test these associations more rigorously.
Changes in social lives and loneliness during COVID-19 among older adults: a closer look at the sociodemographic differences
- Eun Young Choi, Mateo P. Farina, Erfei Zhao, Jennifer Ailshire
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- Journal:
- International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 35 / Issue 6 / June 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 January 2023, pp. 305-317
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Objectives:
The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted the social lives of older adults across several areas, leading to concern about an increase in loneliness. This study examines the associations of structural, functional, and quality aspects of social connection with increased loneliness during COVID-19 and how these associations vary by sociodemographic factors.
Design:Secondary data analyses on a nationally representative survey of older US adults.
Setting:The 2020 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) COVID-19 module.
Participants:The study sample includes 3,804 adults aged 54 or older.
Measurements:Increased loneliness was based on respondents’ self-report on whether they felt lonelier than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Results:While 29% felt lonelier after COVID-19, middle-aged adults, women, non-Hispanic Whites, and the most educated were more likely to report increased loneliness. Not having enough in-person contact with people outside the household was associated with increased loneliness (OR = 10.07, p < .001). Receiving emotional support less frequently (OR = 2.28, p < .05) or more frequently (OR = 2.00, p < .001) than before was associated with increased loneliness. Worse quality of family relationships (OR = 1.85, p < .05) and worse friend/neighbor relationships (OR = 1.77, p < .01) were related to feeling lonelier. Significant interactions indicated stronger effects on loneliness of poor-quality family relationships for women and insufficient in-person contact with non-household people for the middle-aged group and non-Hispanic Whites.
Conclusions:Our findings show an increase in loneliness during COVID-19 that was partly due to social mitigation efforts, and also uncover how sociodemographic groups were impacted differently, providing implications for recovery and support.