Wellbeing and memory function: testing bidirectional associations in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

The aim of this study was to test the bidirectional relationship between wellbeing and memory in a large, nationally representative sample of people aged 50+.

Data were used from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a longitudinal cohort comprising 12,099 people aged 50+, excluding people with dementia at baseline. Repeated measures of wellbeing (CASP-19) and episodic memory (immediate and delayed recall of a word list) were available 9-times over a 16-year period. Cross-lagged models were fitted to test bidirectional relationships between wellbeing and memory.

Higher wellbeing was associated with higher subsequent immediate and delayed memory scores at all time points, though effect sizes were small (standardised betas ranging from 0.04-0.07). There was not evidence that higher memory scores were associated with subsequent wellbeing.

Higher levels of wellbeing are associated with better memory function over 16 years. The study does not provide evidence that the association operates in the opposite direction. The lack of evidence for a relationship between memory and subsequent wellbeing may suggest that associations in this direction only emerge after development of clinically-relevant cognitive impairment. Better wellbeing may be a protective factor in retaining memory function from middle to later adulthood.