Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Dec;28(8):776-83.
doi: 10.1177/1533317513504817.

Subjective memory complaints, cognitive performance, and psychological factors in healthy older adults

Susanne I Steinberg  1 , Selamawit Negash, Mary D Sammel, Hillary Bogner, Brian T Harel, Melissa G Livney, Hannah McCoubrey, David A Wolk, Mitchel A Kling, Steven E Arnold
Affiliations

Subjective memory complaints, cognitive performance, and psychological factors in healthy older adults

Susanne I Steinberg et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2013 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are associated with performance on objective cognitive measures and psychological factors in healthy, community-dwelling older adults.

Method: The cohort was composed of adults, 65 years and older with no clinical evidence of cognitive impairment (n = 125). Participants were administered: CogState computerized neurocognitive battery, Prospective Retrospective Memory Questionnaire, personality and meaning-in-life measures.

Results: SMCs were associated with poorer performance on measures of executive function (p = 0.001). SMCs were also associated with impaired delayed recall (p = 0.006) but this did not remain significant after statistical adjustment for multiple comparisons. SMCs were inversely associated with conscientiousness (p = 0.004) and directly associated with neuroticism (p < 0.001). Higher scores on SMCs were associated with higher perceived stress (p = 0.001), and ineffective coping styles (p = 0.001). Factors contributing to meaning-in-life were associated with fewer SMCs (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: SMCs may reflect early, subtle cognitive changes and are associated with personality traits and meaning-in-life in healthy, older adults.

Keywords: cognitive performance; healthy; meaning-in-life; older adults; personality traits; subjective memory complaints.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Steven E. Arnold has board memberships with Teva and Bristol Myers Squibb. He presently does consultancy work for Pain Therapeutics. He has also received payment for lectures including service on speaker’s bureaus for Rush University Medical Center, Trinitas Regional Medical Center, and University of Puerto Rico. Brian Harel is a full-time employee of CogState, the company that provided the cognitive tests used in the study. Mary Sammel provided consultant services for Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Jessen F, Wiese B, Bachmann C, et al. . Prediction of dementia by subjective memory impairment effects of severity and temporal association with cognitive impairment. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(4):414–422. - PubMed
    1. Stewart R, Godin O, Crivello F, et al. . Longitudinal neuroimaging correlates of subjective memory impairment: 4-year prospective community study. Br J Psychiatry. 2011;198(3):199–205. - PubMed
    1. Glodzik-Sobanska L, Reisberg B, De Santi S, et al. . Subjective memory complaints: presence, severity and future outcome in normal older subjects. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2007;24(3):177–184. - PubMed
    1. Dickerson BC, Sperling RA, Hyman BT, Albert MS, Blacker D. Clinical prediction of Alzheimer disease dementia across the spectrum of mild cognitive impairment. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007;64(12):1443–1450. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Saykin AJ, Wishart HA, Rabin LA, et al. . Older adults with cognitive complaints show brain atrophy similar to that of amnestic MCI. Neurology. 2006;67(5):834–842. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types