Depression, cognitive reserve and memory performance in older adults

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between education and leisure, as markers of cognitive reserve, depressive symptoms and memory performance in a sample of cognitively normal Irish older adults.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey style design was employed to gather data. A sample of 121 older adults in the Cork area was recruited through publicly advertising for volunteers. Only those volunteers who obtained a score of greater than 23 on the MMSE, and were not taking antidepressant or anxiolytic medications, were included. Data from 99 participants were included in the analysis.

Results: Controlling for age and gender, depressive symptoms were found to be associated with poorer immediate recall performance, while greater than 12 years of education was positively associated with delayed recall and savings. Leisure did not emerge as being associated with any of the dimensions of memory assessed.

Conclusions: Depressive symptoms emerged as associated with immediate recall, even though few of the participants met the cut-off for caseness. This may indicate a need for intervention in cases of subclinical depression with associated memory complaints. The association between education level and both delayed recall and savings provides support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis, and may suggest useful non-pharmacological approaches to memory deficits in later life.