Abstract
BackgroundCognitive functioning is important for managing work and life in general. However, subjective cognitive complaints (SCC), involving perceived difficulties with concentration, memory, decision making, and clear thinking are common in the general and working population and can be coupled with both lowered well-being and work ability. However, the relation between SCC and cognitive functioning across the adult age-span, and in the work force, is not clear as few population-based studies have been conducted on non-elderly adults. Thus, the present study aimed to test the relation between SCC and executive cognitive functioning in a population-based sample of employees.MethodsParticipants were 233 employees with either high (cases) or low (controls) levels of SCC. Group differences in neuropsychological test performance on three common executive cognitive tests were analysed through a set of analyses of covariance tests, including relevant covariates.Results & ConclusionsIn line with the a priori hypotheses, a high level of SCC was associated with significantly poorer executive cognitive performance on all three executive cognitive tests used, compared to controls with little SCC. Additionally, symptoms of depression, chronic stress and sleeping problems were found to play a role in the relations between SCC and executive cognitive functioning. No significant associations remained after adjusting for all these factors. The current findings contribute to an increased understanding of what characterizes SCC in the work force and may be used at different levels of prevention of- and intervention for SCC and related problems with executive cognitive functioning.
Highlights
Self-reported problems with cognitive functioning, such as difficulties with concentration, memory, decision making, and clear thinking, are common in the general and working population
Results from the main Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) tests of group differences in performance on the three executive cognitive tests are shown in table 3
Controlling for either chronic stress, depressive symptoms or sleeping problems by adding these as covariates in the ANCOVA tests reduced the significant relationships between subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) group and performance on the 2-back target/hit trials on measures of accuracy, RT and IE to non-significance
Summary
Self-reported problems with cognitive functioning, such as difficulties with concentration, memory, decision making, and clear thinking, are common in the general and working population. Subjective cognitive complaints (SCC), involving perceived difficulties with concentration, memory, decision making, and clear thinking are common in the general and working population and can be coupled with both lowered well-being and work ability. The relation between SCC and cognitive functioning across the adult age-span, and in the work force, is not clear as few population-based studies have been conducted on non-elderly adults. The current findings contribute to an increased understanding of what characterizes SCC in the work force and may be used at different levels of prevention of- and intervention for SCC and related problems with executive cognitive functioning
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