Kong Dexia, Davitt Joan, Dong XinQi
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Gerontol Geriatr Med. 2018 Jul 17;4:2333721418778201. doi: 10.1177/2333721418778201. eCollection 2018 Jan-Dec.
Loneliness has been associated with cognitive functioning in the general older adult population. Previous studies further indicate that loneliness has a strong association with depressive symptoms and the two constructs can reinforce each other to diminish well-being. However, such relationships have not been examined in U.S. Chinese older adults. This study attempts to bridge this knowledge gap. Data were drawn from a population-based study of 3,159 U.S. Chinese older adults in the Greater Chicago area. Stepwise multivariate regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between loneliness, depressive symptoms, and global cognitive functioning. Loneliness was associated with poor global cognitive functioning in U.S. Chinese older adults, though the relationship became nonsignificant after adjustment for depressive symptoms. The interaction term between loneliness and cognitive functioning was statistically significant ( < .01). The findings further highlight the importance of age, education, number of children, number of people in household, and length of residence in the U.S. in cognitive functioning among U.S. Chinese older adults. The study findings indicate that loneliness and depressive symptoms act together to influence cognitive functioning in U.S. Chinese older adults. Research and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
孤独感与一般老年人群的认知功能有关。先前的研究进一步表明，孤独感与抑郁症状密切相关，这两种心理状态会相互强化，进而损害幸福感。然而，美国华裔老年人中的这种关系尚未得到研究。本研究试图填补这一知识空白。数据来自对大芝加哥地区3159名美国华裔老年人开展的一项基于人群的研究。进行了逐步多元回归分析，以检验孤独感、抑郁症状和整体认知功能之间的关系。在美国华裔老年人中，孤独感与较差的整体认知功能相关，但在对抑郁症状进行调整后，这种关系变得不显著。孤独感与认知功能之间的交互项具有统计学意义（<0.01）。研究结果进一步凸显了年龄、教育程度、子女数量、家庭人口数量以及在美国的居住时长对美国华裔老年人认知功能的重要性。研究结果表明，孤独感和抑郁症状共同作用，影响美国华裔老年人的认知功能。本文讨论了这些发现的研究和临床意义。
