ABSTRACT

Objective: Younger subjective age predicts better episodic memory and executive functioning performance independent of chronological age. This study examined whether subjective age is associated with performance in five cognitive domains, quantified the extent to which these relationships are mediated by depressive symptoms, and tested whether these associations are moderated by chronological age.

Method: Participants in this cross-sectional study included 993 adults aged 65 and older from the Health and Retirement Study’s 2016 Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol. Moderated mediation models estimated direct and indirect effects of subjective age on factor scores representing episodic memory, executive functioning, language, visuoconstruction, and speed through depressive symptoms and tested whether associations differed according to chronological age.

Results: Depressive symptoms explained 21–32% of the associations between subjective age and language, speed, episodic memory, and executive functioning. Chronological age moderated the indirect effect involving language, such that depressive symptoms were more strongly related to worse language performance at older chronological ages. After accounting for indirect effects, direct effects of younger subjective age remained for language and speed domains.

Conclusions: This study extends research on the cognitive correlates of subjective age and demonstrates that depressive symptoms partly mediate these relationships. Subjective age may bemost strongly associated with language among individuals at older chronological ages not because they are more sensitive to the negative mental health impact of feeling older than they are but because they may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of depressive symptoms on language ability. Additional longitudinal research is needed to determine whether links between subjective age and cognition are causal versus predictive.

摘要

目的：较年轻的主观年龄预测更好的情景记忆和执行功能表现，与实际年龄无关。这项研究检查了主观年龄是否与五个认知领域的表现相关，量化了这些关系由抑郁症状介导的程度，并测试了这些关联是否受到实际年龄的调节。

方法：这项横断面研究的参与者包括来自健康与退休研究的 2016 年协调认知评估协议的 993 名 65 岁及以上的成年人。适度的中介模型估计了主观年龄对代表情景记忆、执行功能、语言、视觉构造和抑郁症状速度的因素评分的直接和间接影响，并测试了关联是否根据实际年龄而有所不同。

结果：抑郁症状解释了 21-32% 的主观年龄与语言、速度、情景记忆和执行功能之间的关联。实足年龄缓和了涉及语言的间接影响，因此抑郁症状与实足年龄较大的语言表现更密切相关。在考虑了间接影响后，较年轻的主观年龄的直接影响仍然存在于语言和速度领域。

结论：本研究扩展了对主观年龄认知相关性的研究，并证明抑郁症状在一定程度上介导了这些关系。在实际年龄较大的个体中，主观年龄可能与语言最密切相关，这不是因为他们对感觉比他们老的负面心理健康影响更敏感，而是因为他们可能特别容易受到抑郁症状对语言能力的负面影响。需要额外的纵向研究来确定主观年龄和认知之间的联系是因果关系还是预测性的。