Cognitive impairment and self-reported health outcomes among older adults: Longitudinal evidence from Australia

Australia's population is ageing, with forecasts indicating that individuals aged 65 years and over will account for >20 % of the total population by 2066. Ageing is strongly linked with a significant decrease in cognitive capabilities. This study aimed to explore the association between cognitive impairment and four types of health outcomes among older Australians.

Data used for this study was collected from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The final analysis consisted of 11,146 person-year observations from 7035 unique individuals from Wave 2012 and Wave 2016, respectively. A longitudinal random-effects generalised least squares, and ordered logistic regression were used to analyse the association between cognitive impairment and health outcomes.

The study results suggest that cognitive impairment was negatively associated with general health, mental health, self-assessed health and health satisfaction. Older Australians with cognitive impairment scored lower on general health (β = -2.82, SE = 0.56), mental health (β = -2.93, SE = 0.53), self-assessed health (β = - 0.75, SE = 0.10), and health satisfaction (β = -0.19, SE = 0.09) compared to the counterparts without cognitive impairment. The heterogeneous results also showed cognitive impairment was associated with poor health outcomes across age groups.

This study found evidence that cognitive impairment is associated with poor health outcomes. To enhance the physical and mental health and well-being of older adults, the community, government and non-government organizations, and other stakeholders should prioritize routine healthcare prevention, targeted interventions, and treatment practices, particularly for individuals with or at risk of cognitive impairment.