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Reflective pondering is associated with a global cognitive marker of Alzheimer’s disease risk
Author(s) -
DemnitzKing Harriet,
Whitfield Tim,
Schlosser Marco,
Barnhofer Thorsten,
Collette Fabienne,
Klimecki Olga,
Lutz Antoine,
Schild AnnKatrin,
Wirth Miranka,
Chetelat Gael,
Marchant Natalie L,
Group MeditAgeing Research
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.042084
Subject(s) - dementia , cognition , disease , rumination , anxiety , clinical psychology , depression (economics) , medicine , cohort , psychology , apolipoprotein e , psychiatry , economics , macroeconomics
Background Reflective pondering is an introspective mechanism conceptualised as actively seeking a solution to one’s problems. Literature has consistently demonstrated positive associations between reflective pondering and improved mental health outcomes in clinical populations. Given that poor mental health (e.g. depression, anxiety) has been associated with increased dementia risk, and that reflective pondering improves mental health, we asked whether reflective pondering could also act as a protective factor against dementia, measured by cognitive function, in older adults. Method Baseline data from 145 older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD; mean age = 72.2) from the SCD‐Well clinical trial and 135 healthy older adults (mean age = 70.5) from the Age‐Well clinical trial were included in this study. All participants completed the reflective pondering subscale of the Rumination Response Scale and a modified version of the Preclinical Alzheimer’s Cognitive Composite (PACC; Donohue et al., 2014). Linear regressions were run to determine the association between reflective pondering and PACC scores in each cohort independently. Analyses controlled for available prognostic characteristics known to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease (e.g. age, sex, education, depressive symptoms and APOE genotype). Result In SCD‐Well reflective pondering was positively associated with PACC scores after controlling for age, sex, education and depressive symptoms ( β = 0.05, p <.01), with higher levels of reflective pondering associated with better cognition. Similarly, in Age‐Well reflective pondering was also positively associated with PACC scores ( β = 0.04, p = .03) aftercontrolling for age, sex, education, depressive symptoms and APOE genotype. Conclusion In two independent cohorts that included healthy older adults and individuals with SCD, levels of reflective pondering were positively associated with a global cognitive marker of Alzheimer’s risk. Our results introduce preliminary support for reflective pondering as a protective factor for cognitive function. Both SCD‐Well and Age‐Well are clinical trials, thus future work will evaluate the association between changes in reflective pondering due to intervention and cognitive function.