Castanho T C, Santos N C, Meleiro-Neves C, Neto S, Moura G R, Santos M A, Cruz A R, Cunha O, Castro Rodrigues A, Rodrigues A J, Sousa N
Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho - Braga, Portugal.
Association P5 Digital Medical Centre (ACMP5), Braga, Portugal.
Aging Brain. 2021 Aug 28;1:100020. doi: 10.1016/j.nbas.2021.100020. eCollection 2021.
Life events have important effects on psychological well-being. Yet, studies have mainly focused on exploring the impact of traumatic and negative experiences on health and well-being, with positive events receiving marginal attention. In this study, we investigated the association between negative and positive life events, cognitive performance and psychological status in older individuals.
A cross-sectional approach with a sample of 97 community-dwelling adults, recruited from a network of 23 centres/institutions in Northern Portugal, and aged between 56 and 85 years, was conducted. All participants were evaluated through a battery of tests assessing for depressive mood, perceived stress, and cognitive functioning. Life events were measured using the Lifetime Experiences Scale (LIFES) which covers 75 life experiences organized in eight domains.
A total of 95.9% of the participants reported more positive life events than negative throughout life. Participants reporting more positive experiences had lower scores in the depressive mood and perceived stress measures. At the domain-level of LIFES scale, more negative experiences in the Work and Health domains were associated with a depressed mood and more perceived stress. Significant positive associations were found between positive life experiences and most cognitive measures, after controlling for sex, education, age and depressive symptoms. Namely, more positive experiences at School, Leisure, and Living conditions were positively associated with better performance across cognitive tests.
This study adds important evidence on the association between of life events, both negative and positive experiences, on cognition and psychological well-being, providing a more balanced view of the field.
生活事件对心理健康有重要影响。然而，研究主要集中在探索创伤性和负面经历对健康和幸福的影响，而积极事件受到的关注较少。在本研究中，我们调查了老年人负面和正面生活事件、认知表现与心理状态之间的关联。
采用横断面研究方法，从葡萄牙北部23个中心/机构网络招募了97名社区居住成年人作为样本，年龄在56至85岁之间。所有参与者都通过一系列评估抑郁情绪、感知压力和认知功能的测试进行评估。使用终身经历量表（LIFES）测量生活事件，该量表涵盖了75种生活经历，分为八个领域。
共有95.9%的参与者报告一生中积极生活事件多于消极生活事件。报告更多积极经历的参与者在抑郁情绪和感知压力测量中的得分较低。在LIFES量表的领域层面，工作和健康领域中更多的负面经历与抑郁情绪和更多的感知压力相关。在控制了性别、教育程度、年龄和抑郁症状后，发现积极生活经历与大多数认知测量之间存在显著的正相关。具体而言，学校、休闲和生活条件方面更多的积极经历与认知测试中的更好表现呈正相关。
本研究为生活事件（包括负面和正面经历）与认知和心理健康之间的关联提供了重要证据，为该领域提供了更平衡的观点。
