Mood is a key determinant of cognitive performance in community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

Identification of predictors of cognitive trajectories through the establishment of composite or single-parameter dimensional categories of cognition and mood may facilitate development of strategies to improve quality of life in the elderly. Participants (n = 487, aged 50+ years) were representative of the Portuguese population in terms of age, gender, and educational status. Cognitive and mood profiles were established using a battery of neurocognitive and psychological tests. Data were subjected to principal component analysis to identify core dimensions of cognition and mood, encompassing multiple test variables. Dimensions were correlated with age and with respect to gender, education, and occupational status. Cluster analysis was applied to isolate distinct patterns of cognitive performance and binary logistic regression models to explore interrelationships between aging, cognition, mood, and socio-demographic characteristics. Four main dimensions were identified: memory, executive function, global cognitive status, and mood. Based on these, strong and weak cognitive performers were distinguishable. Cluster analysis revealed further distinction within these two main categories into very good, good, poor, and very poor performers. Mood was the principal factor contributing to the separation between very good and good, as well as poor and very poor, performers. Clustering was also influenced by gender and education, albeit to a lesser extent; notably, however, female gender × lower educational background predicted significantly poorer cognitive performance with increasing age. Mood has a significant impact on the rate of cognitive decline in the elderly. Gender and educational level are early determinants of cognitive performance in later life.

Cognitive reserve in the healthy elderly: cognitive and psychological factors

“…Thus, pathological states of mood and sleep quality may have a significant impact on cognitive architecture; higher education may serve as a protective factor in both cases. Interestingly, however, comparison of high and low performers in this study revealed higher performance in measures of cognitive architecture in subjects with higher mood scores and higher engagement in leisure activities, supporting the view that mood and cognitive lifestyle are key determinants of cognitive performance in healthy older individuals ( [6,9,18]). The present data contribute to the CR model proposed by Satz et al [3] by confirming the assumption that processing resources, verbal memory, executive function, and complex cognitive activities promote CR.…”

“…Roldán-Tapia et al [33] found a significant contribution of speed of information processing, verbal memory, and executive function to CR (defined as a proxy for verbal intelligence, educational level, and profession). Notably, Santos et al [9] reported memory and executive function as the main cognitive dimensions that separate high and low performers in cognitive architecture. Together, these results support the idea of a "central circuit of the mind" in which brain structures underlying declarative memory and executive function that serve as basic modules of cognitive architecture [34].…”

“…Examples of such factors include literacy and education, occupation, regular complex mental activities, and cohesiveness of social networks [4][5][6][7][8]. It is also plausible that other variables, such as mood [9] and quality of sleep [10] may also determine cognitive performance in older age. In addition, it should be noted that many of these putative CR-determining factors may be intercorrelated [11], and that they are influenced by individual life experiences and thus, by developmental trajectories in early adulthood and middle age [12].…”

Phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks: normative data for elderly Brazilians

“…The infl uence of education in the maintenance of cognitive abilities has received increasing attention (Meijer, van Boxtel, Van Gerven, van Hooren, & Jolles, 2009;Santos et al, 2012;Strout & Howard, 2012). This is due to the fact that the number of years of study could be a factor of cognitive reserve (Stern, 2009(Stern, , 2012.…”

The role of sex and sex-related hormones in cognition, mood and well-being in older men and women

“…Participants (n = 120) were randomly selected from the Guimarães and Vizela local area health authority registries in the North of Portugal, and were representative (gender and age) of an original cohort representative of the health registries and of the general Portuguese population (Costa, Santos, Cunha, Palha, & Sousa, 2013;Santos et al, 2013Santos et al, , 2014. This database differs in less than 2% of that of the distribution for the Portuguese population estimated by the Portuguese authority on statistics, the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE).…”