1553 – Affectivity and cognitive functioning in institutionalized elderly

Abstract

Affectivity is related to cognitive impairment, but it is not known whether positive affect and negative affect increase/decrease the risk of cognitive impairment. In this study, we sought to examine the prevalence of cognitive impairment, and the potential role of positive and negative affectivity on cognitive functioning in institutionalized portuguese elderly, controlling the potential role of demographic and emotional factors.A cross sectional investigation has been conducted with a portuguese institutionalized sample at Coimbra’s Council. We inquired 412 healthy elderly with a mean age of 80.38 years (SD = 7.24) using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI). Demographic (76.9% women, 14.3% > 4 years of education, 99.1% manual occupation, 82.2% without partner) and other self-reported related factors were taken into consideration (GDS mean 14.30 ± 6.31; GAI mean = 12.49 ± 5.93).The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 66.6% (youngest-old: 1.4%; young-old: 24.7%, old-old: 36.5%, oldest-old: 3.9%). We found that only the positive affect was significantly related with the MMSE (r = 0.22). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that positive affect predicted impairment in cognitive performance (OR = 0.96, CI 95% = 0.93-0.98; p < 0.001). These relationships were significant even after controlling for depression and anxiety status, age, education, and occupation.These findings suggest that positive affect is a variable to attend to when evaluating cognitive functioning in institutionalized elderly.

Optimism and Well-Being Among Institutionalized Older Adults

“…Another characteristic related with optimism is education level, with those with higher literacy having higher levels of optimism (Achat et al, 2000;Giltay et al, 2007;Ikeda et al, 2011;Kostka & Jachimowicz, 2010). This result is predictable, considering that higher educational attainment level is linked to fewer chronic illnesses (Nilsen et al, 2014;Wilson, Yu, James, Bennett, & Boyle, 2016), more healthier behaviors (van der Berg et al, 2014), and better EWB in older people (Costa et al, 2013;Espirito-Santo et al, 2013).…”

“…In fact, most of the institutionalized elderly present with depressive (e.g., Damián et al, 2010; Jerez-Roig et al, 2016; Vicente et al, 2014) and anxiety symptoms (e.g., Creighton et al, 2016; Daniel, Vicente, Guadalupe, Silva, & Santo, 2015), feelings of loneliness (e.g., Costa et al, 2013; Desai et al, 2016; Vicente et al, 2014), and low levels of satisfaction with life (Pardal et al, 2013; Uma devi et al, 2015). Yet the presence of these problems is not always linked with institutionalization, as diverse sociodemographic correlates are reported for persons with anxiety (Creighton et al, 2016) and depressive symptoms (Pena, 2014; Runcan, Haţegan, Bă§rbat, & Alexiu, 2010), loneliness (Costa et al, 2013), affectivity (Espirito-Santo et al, 2013), and satisfaction with life (Pena, 2011).…”