Wyman Mary F, Van Hulle Carol A, Umucu Emre, Livingston Sydnee, Lambrou Nickolas H, Carter Fabu P, Johnson Sterling C, Asthana Sanjay, Gleason Carey E, Zuelsdorff Megan
W.S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, United States.
School of Medicine & Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2022 Jul 29;16:924845. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.924845. eCollection 2022.
Psychological well-being is associated with cognition in later life but has not been examined across diverse populations-including minoritized communities at disproportionately high risk of dementia. Further, most previous work has not been able to examine links between specific facets of psychological well-being and performance within distinct cognitive domains that can capture subclinical impairment. Using a well-characterized sample followed through enrollment in an NIH-funded Alzheimer's Disease Center, we sought to test these associations within three racial groups at baseline. Participants were = 529 cognitively unimpaired Black, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), and white middle-aged and older adults (mean age = 63.6, SD = 8.1, range = 45-88 years) enrolled in the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center's Clinical Core. Predictors included validated NIH Toolbox Emotion Battery scales assessing positive affect, general life satisfaction, and meaning and purpose. Outcomes included performance on widely used tests of executive functioning and episodic memory. We conducted race-stratified regression models to assess within-group relationships. Black and AI/AN participants reported lower life satisfaction than white participants. Racial disparities were not observed for positive affect or meaning and purpose scores. Across groups, life satisfaction predicted better executive functioning. Similar associations were observed for positive affect in Black and AI/AN samples but not among whites. In general, well-being measures were not related to performance on tests of episodic memory. Our results highlight well-being as a potentially important determinant of late-life cognitive health, particularly executive functioning, that is modifiable if older adults are connected with appropriate resources and supports. Further, psychological well-being may represent a potent target for brain health interventions tailored for Black and Native communities.
心理幸福感与晚年认知有关，但尚未在不同人群中进行研究，包括痴呆症风险极高的少数族裔社区。此外，以前的大多数研究都无法检验心理幸福感的特定方面与不同认知领域内表现之间的联系，这些认知领域可以捕捉亚临床损伤。我们利用一个特征明确的样本，该样本通过参加美国国立卫生研究院资助的阿尔茨海默病中心进行随访，试图在基线时测试三个种族群体之间的这些关联。参与者为529名认知未受损的黑人、美国印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民（AI/AN）以及白人中老年成年人（平均年龄 = 63.6岁，标准差 = 8.1，年龄范围 = 45 - 88岁），他们参加了威斯康星州阿尔茨海默病研究中心的临床核心项目。预测因素包括经过验证的美国国立卫生研究院工具箱情绪量表，用于评估积极情绪、总体生活满意度以及意义和目的。结果包括在广泛使用的执行功能和情景记忆测试中的表现。我们进行了种族分层回归模型来评估组内关系。黑人和AI/AN参与者报告的生活满意度低于白人参与者。在积极情绪或意义和目的得分方面未观察到种族差异。在所有群体中，生活满意度预示着更好的执行功能。在黑人和AI/AN样本中，积极情绪也有类似的关联，但在白人中没有。总体而言，幸福感指标与情景记忆测试的表现无关。我们的研究结果强调了幸福感是晚年认知健康的一个潜在重要决定因素，特别是执行功能，如果老年人能够获得适当的资源和支持，这是可以改变的。此外，心理幸福感可能是为黑人和原住民社区量身定制的大脑健康干预的一个有力目标。
