Abstract
Studies demonstrate that anxiety is a risk factor for cognitive decline. However, there are also study findings regarding anxiety incidence among people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which mostly examined general anxiety evaluated by subjective questionnaires. This study aimed to compare subjective and objective anxiety (using autonomic measures) and anxiety as a general tendency and anxiety as a reaction to memory examination. Participants were 50 adults aged 59–82 years who were divided into two groups: MCI group and control group, according to their objective cognitive performance in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Objective changes in the anxiety response were measured by skin conductivity in all tests and questionnaires. To evaluate subjective anxiety as a reaction to memory loss, a questionnaire on “state-anxiety” was used immediately after completing memory tests. Our main finding was that although both healthy and memory-impaired participants exhibited elevations in physiological arousal during the memory test, only healthy participants reported an enhanced state anxiety (p = 0.025). Our results suggest that people with MCI have impaired awareness of their emotional state.
Highlights
Anxiety symptoms have been extensively studied among people with cognitive decline [1,2]
The division of the sample into groups was determined according to their total learning scores in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) test
Significant differences were identified between the groups in objective memory performance (RAVLT; z = 4.3; p < 0.001; Table 1)
Summary
Anxiety symptoms have been extensively studied among people with cognitive decline [1,2]. The association of anxiety with SMC and help-seeking may be a key element in the early diagnosis of cognitive decline [4]. Rozzini et al [9] identified symptoms of anxiety with a prevalence of 74% among people diagnosed with MCI, while Geda et al [10] identified symptoms of anxiety with an incidence of only 11% among people with MCI. The differences in these findings are caused by differences in the sampling methods, the criteria for diagnosing MCI, and tools used to examine anxiety and their level of sensitivity [1,11]
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