Subjective reports of problems remembering names reflect performance on neuropsychological tests for recalling proper names.

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundSubjective memory complaints (SMC) are common in middle‐aged adults. Associations between SMC and cognitive ability have been inconsistent perhaps because SMC measures rarely specifically match measured cognitive domains. We examined the relationship between objective and subjective evaluations of participants’ ability to recall proper names.Method N = 1254 participants enrolled in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP), who were cognitively unimpaired at baseline and had paired SMC and proper noun recall for 1–7 visits were included in these analyses (median visits = 4. A proper name (PN) delayed recall score (0‐9) was created from item‐level data from the Wechsler Memory Scale‐Revised Logical Memory II subtest. Participants also completed the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ), a 17 item self‐appraisal (1‐ major problems to 7‐ no problems) of frequency of forgetting. We examined the association between the MFQ item “frequency of forgetting names” (FFN, M = 4.0 [1.3]) with PN score (M = 4.3 [2.2]) at most recent visit using OLS linear regression. Age, sex, years of education, APOE risk score, and number of visits (i.e practice effects) were included as covariates. We also examined a baseline FFN*age at visit interaction to characterize changes in PN score over time (linear mixed effects models; random intercepts).ResultSample characteristics are shown in Table 1. For participants with multiple visits, PN score was fairly stable between baseline and most recent visit (r = 0.54), as was FFN (r = 0.61). FFN was significantly associated with concurrent PN score (b = 0.14 [beta = 0.09], p = <.001, see Table 2, Figure 1). Excluding 82 participants who converted to cognitively impaired at their last visit did not change these results (beta = 0.10, p <.001). In longitudinal analyses, the baseline FFN*age interaction was not significant (estimate = .01, p = .26), although PN score declined slightly with age (estimate = ‐0.07, p <.001).ConclusionMeasures of SMC tend to focus on broad ratings (e.g., how would you rate your memory), and often do not correlate with objective measures among unimpaired people. These results demonstrate a significant association between subjective appraisal of and objective performance on name recall.