Risk‐taking behavior in older adults is related to cognitive outcomes in a domain‐specific manner

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundRisk tolerance, a crucial component of decision‐making, has been shown to be highly domain‐specific (Blais, 2006). Nevertheless, when risk‐taking behavior is studied in the context of aging, it is almost exclusively examined using behavioral economics tasks which focus on financial risk‐taking behavior, neglecting other important domains such as health, recreational, ethical, and social risk‐taking. Such studies have associated risk‐aversion with cognitive impairment (James, 2015; Dohmen, 2010), however no studies have evaluated domain‐specific risk‐taking behavior and cognition in older adults. Evaluating the association of risk tolerance and cognition in a domain‐specific manner can help inform whether individuals are at an increased risk of poor decision‐making, and which domains of their everyday functioning may be impacted.MethodCognitively normal participants (n = 56) completed the Domain‐Specific Risk‐Taking Scale (DOSPERT) a 30‐item self‐reported survey consisting of financial, health, ethical, recreational, and social risk‐taking domains. Participants rated their likelihood of participating in risky activities on a 7‐point Likert scale with higher scores indicating higher likelihood of risk‐taking. Sum scores for each domain were calculated. Cognitive data was collected on tasks assessing associative, verbal, and working memory, as well as semantic and category fluency. Spearman’s two‐tailed correlations adjusted for age (69.55 ± 7.35), gender (59% female), and level of education (16.69 ± 2.19) were run to evaluate the relationship between specific risk‐taking domains and cognitive function.ResultFinancial risk‐aversion was associated with better long‐term verbal memory retrieval (p = 0.009, r = ‐0.359). Ethical risk‐seeking was associated with higher semantic fluency (p = 0.036, r = 0.292). Health risk‐aversion was associated with slower processing speed (p = 0.011, r = ‐0.348).ConclusionOur findings indicate that domain‐specific risk‐taking behaviors are uniquely related to different aspects of cognition. These findings suggest that measuring risk‐taking behavior in a single domain is not sufficient. Understanding the association between cognition and risk‐taking can provide insight on whether older individuals with impaired cognitive function are more likely to engage in risk‐taking with potential negative impacts on wellbeing. Future work can be conducted longitudinally in older populations to understand whether specific domains of risk‐taking consistently map on to the same aspects of cognition.