Parental dementia and subjective memory impairment in the health and retirement study

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; M_age = 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.

Figure 1:. Associations between Parental Dementia with Current Memory Problems and Perceived Memory Decline

Note: Parental dementia associations with the likelihood of reporting perceived memory decline model the main effect of parental dementia. Parental dementia associations with the likelihood of higher levels of current memory problems model the significant interaction with within-person depressive symptoms when low (−1 SD = −0.42), mean (M = 1.32), and high change (+1 SD = 3.06) occurred. t = observation at each wave, i = observation per each individual participant, wp = within-person centered.