Perceived stress may be linked to cognitive impairment in older adults, according to a new study involving 24,000 participants. The findings point to a need for regular clinical screening and targeted interventions for stress in this population, investigators say.
It is not uncommon for older adults to report feeling stressed. Some studies have found that stress increases with age, and others have suggested that long-term stress may be a modifiable risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia, the researchers reported. They hypothesized that more perceived stress would be associated with cognitive impairment risk — independent of race, sex and age.
The study used long-term data from the REGARDS study, including Black and white participants aged 45 years or older. Elevated stress levels were reported by 23% of the participants. In that group, relatively higher levels of stress were linked to 1.37 times higher odds of poor cognition. This result held after adjusting for sociodemographic variables, cardiovascular risk factors, lifestyle factors and depressive symptoms
Those with relatively higher levels of stress also had greater odds of uncontrolled cardiovascular (CVD) and lifestyle risk factors such as physical inactivity, obesity and smoking, investigators found.
In addition, results showed that changes in perceived stress were also independently associated with new-onset cognitive impairment. These results remained consistent across age, sex and race, even though higher levels of perceived stress were reported by Black participants. This latter finding suggests that high levels of perceived stress increase the risk of cognitive decline regardless of race, the researchers wrote.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
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