Stress can be a risk factor for mental and physical health. We investigated the role of social burden as a potential stressor in older age and its associations with cognitive aging (i.e., within the domains inhibition and cognitive flexibility of executive functioning). Eighty-three older adults (N = 38 male, mean age = 74.0 ± 5.7 years, body-mass index = 25.5 ± 4.1 kg/m²) aged 64 years or older participated. Cognitive flexibility and inhibition were assessed by means of a Trail-Making Test (TMT) and a Stroop task. Perceived levels of social burden and perceived stress in general were assessed via standardized questionnaires. Furthermore, diurnal cortisol profiles were assessed. Overall, older participants showed lower cognitive performance than the younger (both inhibition and cognitive flexibility; p < .044). However, this association did not remain significant when adjusting for multiple comparisons. Social burden was highly correlated with perceived stress, highlighting its importance as a stressor (p < .001). Furthermore, participants who reported higher levels of perceived stress showed lower performance in the TMT as a measure for cognitive flexibility (p < .001). Moreover, social burden was associated with cognitive flexibility, which was assessed by means of the TMT (p = .031). However, this association did not remain significant when using the adjusted α-level. Furthermore, we found that total diurnal cortisol output was a mediator for the relationship between age and inhibition, which was assessed by means of a Stroop task. At last, we found that the mediating role of cortisol interacts with social burden in the way that especially in younger age, high levels of social burden are associated with higher cortisol levels and, therefore, with lower cognitive performance. We conclude that it is important to consider social burden as an additional stressor in older age which is associated with cognitive aging.

压力可能是心理和身体健康的风险因素。我们调查了社会负担作为老年人潜在压力源的作用及其与认知老化的关系（即，在执行功能的域抑制和认知灵活性内）。83 名老年人（N  = 38 名男性，平均年龄 = 74.0 ± 5.7 岁，体重指数 = 25.5 ± 4.1 kg/m ²) 64 岁或以上参加。认知灵活性和抑制通过追踪测试 (TMT) 和 Stroop 任务进行评估。社会负担的感知水平和一般的感知压力通过标准化问卷进行评估。此外，还评估了昼夜皮质醇曲线。总体而言，年长参与者的认知能力低于年轻参与者（抑制和认知灵活性；p  < .044）。然而，在调整多重比较时，这种关联并不显着。社会负担与感知压力高度相关，突出其作为压力源的重要性（p < .001)。此外，报告较高感知压力水平的参与者在 TMT 中表现出较低的表现作为认知灵活性的衡量标准 ( p  < .001)。此外，社会负担与认知灵活性相关，这是通过 TMT 评估的（p = .031)。然而，当使用调整后的 α 水平时，这种关联并不显着。此外，我们发现总的昼夜皮质醇输出是年龄和抑制之间关系的中介，这是通过 Stroop 任务进行评估的。最后，我们发现皮质醇的中介作用与社会负担相互作用，特别是在年轻时，高水平的社会负担与较高的皮质醇水平相关，因此与较低的认知能力相关。我们得出的结论是，将社会负担视为与认知老化相关的老年人的额外压力源是很重要的。