Department of Health and Social Work, University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer, Constantiaplatz 4, 22687, Emden, Germany.
Women's Research Center at Brandeis University, 415 South St., Waltham, MA, 02453, USA.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2022 Sep;57(9):1875-1884. doi: 10.1007/s00127-021-02089-7. Epub 2021 Apr 17.
Limited research is available on the relationship between social stress and risk of declining cognition. We sought to examine whether social stress has adverse effects on risk of declining episodic memory and executive functioning in aging individuals. We used data from the MIDUS study, a national probability sample of non-institutionalized, English speaking respondents aged 25-74 living in the 48 contiguous states of the United States. The initial wave (1995) included 4963 non-institutionalized adults aged 32-84 (M = 55, SD = 12.4). We used an analytic sample from MIDUS-II (1996/1997) and MIDUS-III (2013) (n = 1821). The dependent variables are episodic memory and executive functioning, which were assessed with the Brief Test for Cognition (BTACT). The independent variables were social stress variables (subjective social status, family and marital stress, work stress and discrimination). To evaluate episodic memory and executive functioning changes over a time period of 10 years, we estimated adjusted linear regression models. Women report significantly lower subjective social status and more discrimination stress than men across all age groups. Controlling for education and income, age, and baseline episodic memory and executive functioning, lower subjective social status had additional adverse effects on declines in episodic memory in men and women. Marital risk had adverse effects on episodic memory in men but not in women. Daily discrimination had adverse effects on executive functioning on all individuals. Public health strategies should focus on reducing social stress in a socio-ecological perspective. Especially, subjective social status and discrimination stress might be a target for prevention efforts.
关于社会压力与认知能力下降风险之间的关系，相关研究有限。我们试图探讨社会压力是否对衰老个体的情景记忆和执行功能下降风险有不良影响。我们使用了 MIDUS 研究的数据，这是一项针对美国 48 个州中 25-74 岁非机构化、讲英语的应答者的全国概率抽样调查。初始波（1995 年）包括 4963 名非机构化成年人，年龄在 32-84 岁之间（M=55，SD=12.4）。我们使用了 MIDUS-II（1996/1997 年）和 MIDUS-III（2013 年）（n=1821）中的分析样本。因变量是情景记忆和执行功能，使用简短认知测试（BTACT）进行评估。自变量是社会压力变量（主观社会地位、家庭和婚姻压力、工作压力和歧视）。为了评估 10 年内情景记忆和执行功能的变化，我们估计了调整后的线性回归模型。在所有年龄段，女性报告的主观社会地位明显低于男性，歧视压力也高于男性。控制教育和收入、年龄以及基线情景记忆和执行功能后，较低的主观社会地位对男性和女性的情景记忆下降有额外的不良影响。婚姻风险对男性的情景记忆有不良影响，但对女性没有影响。日常歧视对所有个体的执行功能都有不良影响。公共卫生策略应从社会生态学的角度关注减少社会压力。特别是，主观社会地位和歧视压力可能是预防工作的目标。
