Information processing speed as a mediator between psychosocial stress and global cognition in older adults

Abstract

Background: The link between psychosocial stress and cognitive function is complex, and previous studies have indicated that it may be mediated by processing speed. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to examine whether processing speed mediates the association between psychosocial stress and global cognition in older adults. Moreover, the moderating role of gender in this model is examined as well. Methods: The study included 2322 community-dwelling older adults in Malaysia who were randomly selected through a multistage proportional cluster random sampling technique. Global cognition construct was measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment; psychosocial stress construct was measured by perceived stress, depression, loneliness, and neuroticism; and processing speed was assessed by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the mediation and moderation tests. Results: Processing speed was found to partially mediate the relationship between psychosocial stress and global cognition (β in the direct model = −0.15, P < 0.001; β in the full mediation model = −0.11, P < 0.001). Moreover, the relationship between psychosocial stress and global cognition was found to be significant in men only, whereas the association between processing speed and global cognition was significant in men and women. Conclusions: Psychosocial stress may increase the likelihood that older adults will experience poor processing capacity, which could reduce their higher level cognition. Results indicate that there is a need to develop processing capacity intervention programmes for psychologically distressed older adults to prevent them from suffering cognitive decline.

The association between religious orientation and life satisfaction in older adults living with morbidity and multimorbidity: a gender perspective in Malaysia

“…Details of the study, including design and sampling, has been described elsewhere 31 . Publications using the same dataset have been published elsewhere 32, 33 . The survey covered a wide range of topics.…”

“…31 Publications using the same dataset have been published elsewhere. 32,33 The survey covered a wide range of topics. However, only variables related to demographics, chronic medical condition, life satisfaction, and religious orientation were of special interest.…”

Neurocognition and the Suicidal Process

“…Robert Firestone's Separation Theory introduced the concept of the Voice, wherein self-destructive impulses arise out of critical or hostile messages from early figures that are internalized and become their own voice (Firestone 1986(Firestone , 1997. In his concept, there exist self and anti-self systems which influence self-destructive thoughts, falling on a continuum from mildly self-critical to suicidal; these systems are part of the self-destructive thoughts which compromise the Voice, which in turn alters the continuum of self-destructive behaviors.…”

Funções cognitivas em pacientes com polineuropatia inflamatória desmielinizante crônica (PIDC)

“…Quanto mais hábil o sujeito é no processamento, maior é seu nível de desempenho e, quanto mais rápido a VPI, maior a capacidade para acompanhar a quantidade de estímulo apresentado (SALTHOUSE, 1996;BRYAN;LUSZCZ, 1996). A VPI impacta no comportamento adaptativo do sujeito (KAIL;SALTHOUSE, 1994, FOONG, 2018.…”

“…É reconhecido que a VPI medeia outras funções cognitivas tais como memória e inteligência (SALTHOUSE 1996;PENKE et al, 2010, KUZNETSOVA et al, 2016FELLOWS et al, 2014;SALTHOUSE, 1995), memória operacional, a qual é considerada um importante componente para a inteligência fluída (FRY;HALE, 1996), raciocínio indutivo e memória de curto prazo (KAIL; SALTHOUSE, 1994), significado verbal, orientação espacial e fluência verbal (CHAIE, 1989), recordação (BRYAN;LUSZCZ, 1996) e cognição global (FOONG et al, 2018).…”