In Older Adults, Perceived Stress and Self-Efficacy Are Associated with Verbal Fluency, Reasoning, and Prospective Memory (Moderated by Socioeconomic Position).

Ulrike Rimmele,Andreas Ihle,Nicola Ballhausen,Matthias Kliegel

doi:10.3390/brainsci12020244

Abstract

Despite evidence that stress relates negatively to cognitive functioning in older adults, little is known how appraisal of stress and socioeconomic meso-level factors influence different types of cognitive functions in older adults. Here, we assess the relationship between perceived stress (PSS scale) and a battery of cognitive functions, including prospective memory in 1054 older adults (65+). A moderator analysis assessed whether this relationship varies with neighborhood socioeconomic status using an area-based measure of Socioeconomic Position (SEP). Perceived stress was associated with worse processing speed, verbal fluency, and inductive reasoning. The perceived self-efficacy subscale of the PSS is related to better performance in these measures. Higher self-efficacy was also associated with better prospective memory; this relationship was more pronounced for people with high neighborhood SEP. These findings indicate that not only do perceived stress and perceived self-efficacy relate to cognitive functioning in older age but also that neighborhood SEP is a moderator of this relationship.

Highlights

Evidence from experimental studies indicates that stress modulates cognition, with the brain being most sensitive to stress during childhood and older age [1,2]
We examined whether the relationship of perceived stress on cognition varied as a function of socioeconomic position
The Cognitive Telephone Screening Instrument (COGTEL) subsample did not differ from the participants without COGTEL in age, years of education, perceived stress, Trail Making Test (TMT) A and TMT B, prospective memory, and neighborhood socioeconomic position (SEP)

Summary

Introduction

Evidence from experimental studies indicates that stress modulates cognition, with the brain being most sensitive to stress during childhood and older age [1,2]. Population-based studies showed that increased levels of perceived stress relate to lower cognitive functioning and a faster rate of cognitive decline [3,4,5,6,7]. The positively worded subscale (PSS-PW) is thought to measure perceived coping abilities such as self-efficacy, while the negatively worded subscale (PSS-NW) measures perceived helplessness. These two subscales are poorly correlated in older adults [16] and relate differently to cognitive functions [17]. The self-efficacy subscale (PSS-PW scale), but less so the helplessness subscale (PSS-NW), is associated with cognitive functioning in older adults [18,19,20]

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