Optimism and cognitive functioning trajectories in a cohort of aging men

Robust evidence supports optimism as an asset for good physical and emotional health in aging populations, but its role in cognitive aging remains understudied. This study evaluated whether higher optimism levels would be prospectively associated with higher initial levels and slower decline in cognitive functioning over 26 years in a community-dwelling cohort of aging men.

Participants included 847 men from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study who completed the Revised Optimism-Pessimism scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 in 1986 and ≥1 cognitive assessment repeated triennially in 1993-2019. At each assessment, scores from seven cognitive tests were combined into a global composite and three domain-specific composites: verbal memory, executive functioning, and visuospatial ability. Mixed-effects regression models evaluated the associations between optimism and cognitive trajectories.

Higher optimism levels were associated with higher initial levels but not less decline in global cognitive functioning over time (B = 0.04, 95% CI: 0.001-00.07), , adjusted for demographics, practice effects, and lag between optimism assessment and the first cognitive assessment. In domain-specific analyses, optimism was associated with higher initial levels but not magnitude of decline in verbal memory (B = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.01-0.12), and unrelated to executive functioning or visuospatial ability trajectories.

This study adds specificity to a nascent literature linking optimism to cognitive aging, indicating an association with initial levels, but not decline-particularly in verbal memory-in older men. Examining these relationships earlier in life may further clarify the etiologic role of optimism in cognitive health across the developmental span.