Subjective memory complaints and cognitive performance in a sample of healthy elderly

Memory loss is a major complaint among the elderly population. However, the clinical significance of this symptom is variable and also controversial in the scientific literature.

To compare the cognitive performance of two groups of healthy elderly, one group with and the other without, subjective memory complaints (SMC).

Sixty cognitively intact elderly individuals (39 females and 21 males), aged 69.9±6.3 years and with educational level of 8.5±5.5 years, were included in the study. Participants were submitted to the Mini-Mental State Examination and to the Cornell depression scale in order to rule out global cognitive impairment and depression, respectively. Moreover, they answered the MAC-Q, a questionnaire devised to evaluate subjective impression of memory function. Subsequently, they were submitted to the digit span forward and backward, the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery, and to the Frontal Assessment Battery.

Twenty-seven individuals had MAC-Q scores <25 and thus were classified as not having SMC, while 33 had MAC-Q scores ≥25 and were considered to have SMC. No differences for age, gender, education and MMSE scores were found between the two groups. The comparison between the performance of the groups of complainers and non-complainers on the different cognitive tests yielded no significant difference, although there was a trend toward non-complainers performing better on incidental memory.

The presence of SMC was not associated to objective memory impairment or to other cognitive deficits in this group of elderly individuals.