The Relationship Between Anxiety, Depression and Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults: An Exploratory...

To explore the strength of the association between cognitive functioning and depression and anxiety in older people without dementia.

An exploratory, cross-sectional analysis of Wave 1 (2004-2007) data from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 dataset. Three subgroups were based on Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) subscales: no probable anxiety or depression (N = 592), probable anxiety no depression (N = 122), probable depression with/without anxiety (depression) (N = 30). Regression analyses determined relationships between subgroups and identified cognitive test variables.

Participants were 744 individuals (male = 385 [51.5%]; mean [M] age = 69.5 years [Standard deviation = 0.83]); characteristics for subgroups were similar. Participants with probable depression had slower simple reaction time scores than those with no anxiety or depression (regression slope [β] on the log10 scale = 0.05, 95% Confidence Interval [0.03, 0.08], p ≤ 0.001). Those with probable anxiety had significantly worse scores on other tests: Spatial span (β = -0.80 [-1.36, -0.25], p ≤ 0.005), Symbol Search (β = -1.67 [-2.90, -0.45], p ≤ 0.01), Matrix Reasoning (β = -1.58 [-2.55, -0.60], p ≤ 0.005) and Block Design (β = -3.33 [-5.29, -1.37], p ≤ 0.001), than those without probable anxiety or depression.

Probable depression and anxiety were found to be associated with lower cognitive function in those without evidence of dementia. People with probable anxiety showed poorer performance in tests that concerned making decisions. People with probable depression showed slower processing speed.