Association between multimorbidity, subjective memory decline and cognitive performance in older adults.

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundHigh multimorbidity rates co‐existing with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been interpreted as a consequence of dementia progression. Little is known about multimorbidity’s relationship with cognition as an underlying factor capable of accelerating the progression and onset of the disease. Here we examined the relationship between multimorbidity, cognitive performance and subjective memory decline in older adults in a large representative dataset.MethodsCross‐sectional data from 1,103 individuals (60.1% female), between 60 – 97 years old, enrolled in the Health, Wellbeing and Aging Study (SABE), a Brazilian population‐cohort study, were assessed for multimorbidity and cognitive performance. Multimorbidity was defined as the co‐occurrence of at least two chronic conditions. Cognitive performance was determined using the MMSE, verbal fluency (number of animals per minute), and backward digital span. For the subjective memory performance, participants were asked whether their memory for daily activities was better, the same, or worse compared to the last ten years.ResultsMultimorbidity was present in 36.8% of the participants, with the highest rates observed in the participants with subjective memory decline (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, education and depression symptoms showed that the higher the multimorbidity rate, the lower the MMSE (B = ‐0.365; p = 0.025) and the digit span scores (B = ‐0.232; p = 0.003; F = 68.3; p < 0.001).ConclusionIn older adults, multimorbidity was associated with higher subjective memory decline, lower short‐term memory, and global cognitive performance. These findings support future longitudinal studies investigating multimorbidity in moderating dementia pathology and progression.