Association of perceived stress with memory decline in older Chinese: The Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study

Previous studies on associations of perceived stress with poor memory performance in older adults showed inconsistent results. We examined the prospective associations of perceived stress with memory decline using data from Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study (GBCS).

Perceived stress was measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) at baseline (2003-2006), with greater scores indicating greater stress. Memory function was measured by delayed 10-word recall test (DWRT) and immediate 10-word recall test (IWRT), with greater scores indicating better performance, at baseline and follow-up (2008-2012) examinations, analyzed as mean annual change in scores.

9656 participants (72 % women) with mean age 61.6 (standard deviation = 6.4) years were included. During an average of 4.4 years of follow-up, after adjusting for confounders, each one-point greater PSS score was associated with mean annual decline in DWRT scores (β (95 % CI) = -0.005 (-0.008 to -0.002)). Greater Perceived Helplessness (PH) scores, but not Perceived Self-efficacy scores, was associated with greater mean annual decline in DWRT and IWRT scores (β (95 % CI) = -0.005 (-0.009 to -0.001) and - 0.012 (-0.018 to -0.005), respectively), and similar patterns were observed in five out of seven PH items (βs from -0.02 to -0.07). Interaction analysis showed that the association of greater PSS with greater decline in DWRT scores was observed only in those with low family income (β (95 % CI) = -0.08 (-0.13 to -0.04), P for interaction = 0.03).

Greater perceived stress was associated with a greater decline in delayed recall memory, especially in those with low family income.