HIGHLIGHTS
- •We investigated which cognitive domains are affected by anxiety in a twelve year follow-up cohort study.
- •Anxiety symptoms were associated with a decline of verbal memory in older adults and with poorer performance in non-amnestic domains in women.
- •Adequate treatment of anxiety symptoms could potentially beneficially influence the risk for developing neurodegenerative disease.
Objective
Anxiety might be a risk factor for cognitive decline, but previous studies had short
follow-up or small sample sizes or studied general or single cognitive domain functioning.
Methods
Anxiety symptoms were assessed with the Symptom Checklist-90 in 918 participants of
the Maastricht Aging Study aged 50 years or older. Anxiety was analyzed both dichotomously
(highest versus lower quartiles as a group) and continuously. Neuropsychological tests
measured executive function, memory, speed of information processing, and verbal fluency.
Linear mixed models were conducted with anxiety symptoms as predictor and change in
cognitive scores as outcome. Differences of associations by age and gender were studied
with three-way interactions.
Results
Higher anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with more decline in verbal
memory in those aged 65 years and older (delayed recall: χ2 = 9.30, df = 2, p = 0.01; immediate recall: χ2 = 11.81, df = 2, p = 0.003). There were sex differences in executive function (χ2 = 6.63, df = 2, p = 0.036), fluency (χ2 = 6.89, df = 2, p = 0.032), and processing speed (χ2 = 8.83, df = 2, p = 0.012), with lower performance in women over time.
Conclusion
In participants without cognitive impairments at baseline, anxiety symptoms were associated
with a decline in verbal memory in older adults and with poorer performance in nonamnestic
domains in women. Adequate treatment of anxiety symptoms could have a beneficial influence
on the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases. Further research is needed to
elucidate whether this association is causal.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 14, 2018
Accepted:
September 5,
2018
Received in revised form:
September 5,
2018
Received:
June 5,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
