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.

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.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (grant number NIA R01AG055398). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This study used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a public use dataset produced and distributed by the University of Michigan with funding from the National Institute on Aging [grant number NIA U01AG009740].