https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5702-5995
![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
Objectives
To examine relationships between subjective memory impairment (SMI) and parental dementia among in older adults while considering the interactive influence of depressive symptoms, ethnicity, and race.
Method
The sample was drawn from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative longitudinal study of aging (n = 3,809; Mage = 66.09; SD = 1.88; 84.20% White; 12.23% Black; 7.88% Hispanic). Biennial assessments included two measures of SMI (current memory problems and perceived memory decline), depressive symptoms, and parental dementia, over periods of up to sixteen years. Multilevel modeling analyses examined longitudinal relationships between parental dementia and SMI and whether depressive symptoms, ethnicity, and race interactively influenced this association.
Results
Results showed that when older adults reported parental dementia, they were more likely to report a decline in memory in the past two years. They also reported poorer current memory problems, especially when they experienced increased depressive symptoms. Associations of parental dementia were consistent across ethnicity and race.
Conclusions
Results demonstrate the importance of considering parental dementia as a factor that may contribute to SMI in older adults.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the research team and study participants from the Health and Retirement study (HRS). HRS data is publicly available and can be accessed by registering here: https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/data-products/access-to-public-data. Request for additional information regarding the specific use of data and data analytic methods may be sent to the first author.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.