Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK.
Aging Ment Health. 2024 Jan-Feb;28(1):73-82. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2023.2242291. Epub 2023 Aug 4.
Loneliness has been associated to a greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older individuals. However, evidence on whether this association also exists for older individuals who complain of cognitive problems is limited. We conducted a survey to examine the association between subjective cognitive decline in the working memory domain, perceived loneliness, depression, anxiety, and stress in older individuals with different profiles.
A total of 302 healthy, old individuals completed 3 questionnaires to assess subjective cognitive problems in attention, executive functions, storage, depression, anxiety, stress, and perceived loneliness.
We conducted a cluster analysis and 3 clusters of individuals with different profiles emerged. Individuals with greater subjective cognitive problems (cluster 1) in the attention and storage domains, reported higher perceived loneliness and stress but not depression. In contrast, individuals with the least subjective cognitive problems (cluster 3) in the storage domain, reported lower perceived loneliness.
Individuals with higher subjective cognitive decline also report higher levels of perceived loneliness but not more depression than their peers. However, this correlation is present only for individuals with mild subjective cognitive decline (cluster 2). The implications for future research and interventions are discussed.
孤独与老年人认知能力下降和痴呆的风险增加有关。然而，对于那些抱怨认知问题的老年人，这种关联是否存在的证据有限。我们进行了一项调查，以研究不同认知状况的老年个体在工作记忆领域的主观认知下降、孤独感、抑郁、焦虑和压力之间的关系。
共有 302 名健康的老年人完成了 3 份问卷，以评估注意力、执行功能、存储、抑郁、焦虑、压力和孤独感等方面的主观认知问题。
我们进行了聚类分析，出现了 3 组具有不同特征的个体。在注意力和存储领域有更多主观认知问题的个体（第 1 组）报告了更高的孤独感和压力，但没有抑郁。相比之下，在存储领域主观认知问题最少的个体（第 3 组）报告了较低的孤独感。
主观认知下降较高的个体也报告了更高的孤独感，但抑郁程度并不比同龄人高。然而，这种相关性仅存在于轻度主观认知下降的个体（第 2 组）中。讨论了对未来研究和干预的影响。
