Prevalence and psychosocial correlates of subjectively perceived decline in five cognitive domains: Results from a population‐based cohort study in Germany

Abstract

Objective Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) was frequently investigated for memory in healthy aging or in relation to diseases like dementia. It was found to be related to sociodemographic and psychological variables as well as cognitive abilities. The prevalence of SCD in other cognitive domains and their relation to these variables is largely unknown to date. The present study aimed to fill this gap. Methods A total of 807 subjects (18‐85 years of age, M = 57.8 years, female: 43%) completed the Juelich Questionnaire on Subjective Cognitive Decline, to investigate SCD in memory, attention, language, motor, and executive functions. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate association of depressive symptomatology, emotionality, and general cognitive performance as well as age, gender, and educational attainment with domain‐specific SCD. Results The highest prevalence rate was obtained for the memory domain (65.9%), followed by the attention (54.6%), motor (52.9%), executive (39.7%), and language domain (31.5%). Of the psychosocial factors, only age, depressive symptomatology and emotionality were consistently and strongly associated with domain‐specific SCD prevalence. Conclusions SCD is prevalent not only in the memory domain, but also in other major cognitive domains. Our results also suggest that the suspicion from previous research, that subjective memory decline might be more strongly associated with depressive symptomatology and emotionality than with actual decline of cognitive performance, might also apply to the attention, motor, executive, and language domain. Further investigations using neuropsychological testing for specific cognitive functions and employing longitudinal designs are required for substantiating this suspicion.

The Effects of Different Exercise Interventions on Patients with Subjective Cognitive Decline: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

“…Outcomes: The core symptom of SCD is a decline in memory function ( 31 ), followed by impairments in executive function, attention and verbal fluency domains ( 32 ). Therefore, we used memory function as the primary outcome measure and analyzed executive function, attention, verbal fluency and global cognitive function as secondary outcome measures.…”

Hypertension Status Moderated the Relationship between the Hippocampal Subregion of the Left GC-ML-DG and Cognitive Performance in Subjective Cognitive Decline

“…The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) meeting the diagnostic criteria for SCD [1]; (2) 3) [21]. Specifically, the divided attention subtest was administered.…”

“…Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is characterized by self-reported memory or cognitive function decline, while no obvious cognitive dysfunction and the impairment of daily living ability in objective behavioral examination [ 1 ]. Although there is no objective cognitive impairment, compared to the healthy controls, the patients with SCD show a higher prevalence rate of memory, attention, motor, executive, and language function decline [ 2 ]. As a status between normal aging and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), SCD is considered to be one of the initial and first cognitive changes in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) [ 3 ].…”

Factors influencing the use of natural health products, in particular for concentration and cognition in Germany

“…On the other hand, subjective memory complaints were found to be associated with higher education, which could be due to more noticeable changes in memory performance [ 16 , 17 ]. However, associations between subjective memory declines and education are weak [ 18 ]. Difficulties in daily attention and memory performance were found weaker for individuals with less than 10 years of school education as well as for those with a university degree compared to people with more than 10 years of school education but without a university degree [ 19 ].…”