Takeaway
- Depressive symptoms were found to be significantly associated with both baseline cognitive function and subsequent cognitive decline over a 10-year follow-up period.
- Cumulative exposure to long-term depressive symptoms in elderly individuals could predict accelerated subsequent cognitive decline in a dose-response pattern.
Why this matters
- Study finding has clinical implication as careful monitoring of depressive symptoms in older adults may benefit early intervention and treatment, delaying the progression of cognitive impairment and the development of late-onset dementia.
Study design
- Cohort study of 7610 participants aged ≥50 years from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing cohort.
- Patients were assessed using delayed recall scores and Center for Epidemiologic Studies- Depression Scale (CES-D).
- Funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China and others.
Key results
- Overall, 1157 participants had episodic depressive symptoms and 525 participants had persistent depressive symptoms.
- After adjustments, a 1-unit change in the sum of CES-D scores was associated with faster declines in:
- global cognitive scores (–0.012 points/year; 95% CI, –0.019 to –0.005, P=.001),
- memory scores (–0.004 points/year; 95% CI, –0.007 to –0.002, P=.002),
- executive function scores (–0.005 points/year; 95% CI, –0.011 to –0.001, P=.015),
- orientation scores (–0.001 points/year; 95% CI, –0.002 to –0.001, P<.001).
- The multiple-adjusted rates of global cognitive decline associated with episodic depressive symptoms and persistent depressive symptoms were faster by –0.065 points/year (95% CI, –0.129 to –0.000) and –0.141 points/year (95% CI, –0.236 to –0.046), respectively (P for trend < .001).
- Memory, executive, and orientation function also declined faster with increasing duration of depressive symptoms (all P for trend < 0.05).
Limitations
- Presence of residual confounding factors.
References
References
