Pretscher Anna, Kauzner Saskia, Rohleder Nicolas, Becker Linda
Department of Psychology, Chair of Health Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nägelsbachstr. 49a, 91052 Erlangen, Germany.
Eur J Ageing. 2021 Mar 28;18(4):575-590. doi: 10.1007/s10433-021-00616-8. eCollection 2021 Dec.
Stress can be a risk factor for mental and physical health. We investigated the role of social burden as a potential stressor in older age and its associations with cognitive aging (i.e., within the domains inhibition and cognitive flexibility of executive functioning). Eighty-three older adults ( = 38 male, mean age = 74.0 ± 5.7 years, body-mass index = 25.5 ± 4.1 kg/m) aged 64 years or older participated. Cognitive flexibility and inhibition were assessed by means of a Trail-Making Test (TMT) and a Stroop task. Perceived levels of social burden and perceived stress in general were assessed via standardized questionnaires. Furthermore, diurnal cortisol profiles were assessed. Overall, older participants showed lower cognitive performance than the younger (both inhibition and cognitive flexibility; < .044). However, this association did not remain significant when adjusting for multiple comparisons. Social burden was highly correlated with perceived stress, highlighting its importance as a stressor ( < .001). Furthermore, participants who reported higher levels of perceived stress showed lower performance in the TMT as a measure for cognitive flexibility ( < .001). Moreover, social burden was associated with cognitive flexibility, which was assessed by means of the TMT ( = .031). However, this association did not remain significant when using the adjusted α-level. Furthermore, we found that total diurnal cortisol output was a mediator for the relationship between age and inhibition, which was assessed by means of a Stroop task. At last, we found that the mediating role of cortisol interacts with social burden in the way that especially in younger age, high levels of social burden are associated with higher cortisol levels and, therefore, with lower cognitive performance. We conclude that it is important to consider social burden as an additional stressor in older age which is associated with cognitive aging.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-021-00616-8.
压力可能是心理健康和身体健康的一个风险因素。我们研究了社会负担作为老年人潜在压力源的作用及其与认知衰老的关联（即执行功能的抑制和认知灵活性领域）。83名64岁及以上的老年人（男性38名，平均年龄74.0±5.7岁，体重指数25.5±4.1kg/m）参与了研究。通过连线测验（TMT）和斯特鲁普任务评估认知灵活性和抑制能力。通过标准化问卷评估感知到的社会负担水平和一般感知压力。此外，还评估了昼夜皮质醇水平。总体而言，老年参与者的认知表现低于年轻参与者（包括抑制和认知灵活性；P<0.044）。然而，在进行多重比较调整后，这种关联不再显著。社会负担与感知压力高度相关，凸显了其作为压力源的重要性（P<0.001）。此外，报告感知压力水平较高的参与者在作为认知灵活性指标的TMT中表现较低（P<0.001）。此外，社会负担与通过TMT评估的认知灵活性相关（P=0.031）。然而，使用调整后的α水平时，这种关联不再显著。此外，我们发现昼夜皮质醇总输出是年龄与通过斯特鲁普任务评估的抑制之间关系的一个中介变量。最后，我们发现皮质醇的中介作用与社会负担相互作用，特别是在年轻时，高水平的社会负担与较高的皮质醇水平相关，因此与较低的认知表现相关。我们得出结论，将社会负担视为与认知衰老相关的老年期额外压力源很重要。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s10433-021-00616-8获取的补充材料。
