The relation of low cognitive abilities to low well-being in old age is attenuated in individuals with greater cognitive reserve and greater social capital accumulated over the life course

Michel Oris,Matthias Kliegel,Dario Spini,Julia Sauter,Andreas Ihle,Ulrike Rimmele,Jürgen Maurer

doi:10.1080/13607863.2018.1531370

Michel Oris, Matthias Kliegel + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2018.1531370

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Abstract

Objectives: The present study sets out to investigate the relation of cognitive abilities to well-being and its interplay with key life course proxies of cognitive reserve and social capital in a large sample of older adults.Method: Three thousand eighty older adults served as sample for the present study. Physical well-being (EuroQoL-5D questionnaire) and psychological well-being (Satisfaction with Life Scale) as well as cognitive performance in terms of verbal abilities (Mill Hill vocabulary scale), processing speed (Trail Making Test part A), and cognitive flexibility (Trail Making Test part B) were assessed. Participants reported information on education, occupation, cognitively stimulating leisure activities, the different languages regularly spoken as well as family and close friends.Results: Moderation analyses showed that the relation of cognitive performance to physical and psychological well-being was significantly attenuated in individuals with a higher cognitive level of the first job after education, a larger number of midlife and current cognitively stimulating leisure activities, a larger number of languages regularly spoken, a larger number of significant family members and friends, and more frequent contact with and more confidence in significant family members.Conclusion: Present data suggest that the relation of low cognitive abilities to low well-being in old age is attenuated in individuals with greater cognitive reserve and greater social capital accumulated over the life course.

Highlights

Well-being is an important outcome measure in gerontology and public health (Gouveia et al, 2017; Huxhold, Miche, & Schuz, 2014)
Among those factors the present study focused on cognitive reserve and social capital, which both have been conceptualized as being crucially important for preserving cognitive functioning and wellbeing in old age
Investigating the direction of these significant moderation effects in detail, a set of simple slope analyses was subsequently conducted. These subsequent analyses revealed that the relation of cognitive abilities to physical well-being was attenuated in individuals with high values in the proxies of cognitive reserve and social capital

Summary

Introduction

Well-being is an important outcome measure in gerontology and public health (Gouveia et al, 2017; Huxhold, Miche, & Schuz, 2014). As postulated in the Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC) model (Baltes & Baltes, 1989, 1993), well-being depends on how individuals adapt to the growing health constraints and how individuals evaluate their consequences for daily living (Charles & Hong, 2016; Rowe & Cosco, 2016). In this regard, physical and psychological aspects of well-being can be differentiated (McKeeRyan, Song, Wanberg, & Kinicki, 2005). For gerontological and mental health research it is important to identify the factors that help to preserve well-being despite suffering from constraints in health and cognitive abilities in old age. Several proxies of cognitive reserve such as education, cognitively demanding jobs, and cognitively stimulating leisure activities have been found to be related to greater psychological well-being in midlife and old age (Cedervall, Torres, & Aberg, 2015; Joo, Zigarmi, Nimon, & Shuck, 2017; Ku, Fox, & Chen, 2016; Meeks & Murrell, 2001)

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