Negative Life Events and Cognitive Performance in a Population of Older Adults
| Autor: | Amy R. Borenstein, Cathy L. McEvoy, Brent J. Small, Christopher B. Rosnick, James A. Mortimer |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2007 |
| Předmět: |
Gerontology
Aging Population Poison control Motor Activity Suicide prevention Life Change Events 03 medical and health sciences Cognition 0302 clinical medicine Injury prevention Humans Attention 030212 general & internal medicine Effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance education Aged Aged 80 and over Community and Home Care education.field_of_study Human factors and ergonomics Secondary data 030229 sport sciences Middle Aged United States Geriatrics and Gerontology Psychology Stress Psychological |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Aging and Health. 19:612-629 |
| ISSN: | 1552-6887 0898-2643 |
| Popis: | Objectives: This study examined the association between negative life events in the past year and cognitive performance in a population of older adults. Methods: Secondary data analysis was conducted on 428 participants from the Charlotte County Healthy Aging Study. Participants completed tests of episodic memory, attention, and psychomotor speed and endorsed the presence and severity of 24 life events. Life events were examined in the aggregate as well as individually. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression results suggest no significant relationship between the aggregate frequency and severity measures of negative life events and cognitive performance. At the individual-event level, individuals who experienced the injury or illness of a friend during the past year and rated it as having more of an effect on their lives performed better on all three cognitive tasks. However, individuals who reported having less money to live on over the past year and rated the event as having more of an effect on their lives performed more poorly on the psychomotor speed tasks. Discussion: The findings support previous research indicating that using estimates of individual stressors rather than aggregate stress measures increases the predictive validity of stress measurement. Furthermore, the individual negative life events can have both a positive and a negative effect, which nullify one another when using the sum score of events. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|