Dataset Information

Stressful events, social support, and cognitive function in middle-aged adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:To examine the associations of stressful experiences and social support with cognitive function in a sample of middle-aged adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHOD:Using data from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP; N = 623), we evaluated relationships between stressful events experienced in the past year, as well as social support, and cognitive performance in four domains: speed and flexibility, immediate memory, verbal learning and memory, and working memory. We assessed interactions between psychosocial predictors, and with APOE ?4 status. RESULTS:Greater number of stressful events was associated with poorer performance on tests of speed and flexibility. Greater social support was associated with better performance in the same domain; this relationship was diminished by the presence of the ?4 allele. No associations were seen in the remaining three domains. DISCUSSION:Psychosocial factors may influence cognition in at-risk individuals; influence varies by cognitive domain and ?4 status.

SUBMITTER: Zuelsdorff ML

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3769466 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Stressful events, social support, and cognitive function in middle-aged adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.

Zuelsdorff Megan L ML Engelman Corinne D CD Friedman Elliot M EM Koscik Rebecca L RL Jonaitis Erin M EM Rue Asenath La AL Sager Mark A MA

Journal of aging and health 20130814 6

<h4>Objective</h4>To examine the associations of stressful experiences and social support with cognitive function in a sample of middle-aged adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease (AD).<h4>Method</h4>Using data from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP; N = 623), we evaluated relationships between stressful events experienced in the past year, as well as social support, and cognitive performance in four domains: speed and flexibility, immediate memory, verbal lear ...[more]

PMID: 23945762

Similar Datasets

Project description:Chronic stress affects immune function and hormonal signaling and has been hypothesized to be associated with breast cancer, although results from the few prior studies are mixed and have not examined potential differences by estrogen receptor (ER) status. Using the Women's Health Initiative study, we included 76,951 postmenopausal women followed for events for a median of 16.7 years to investigate the association between baseline self-reported stressful life events and incident breast cancer by ER status and whether the association was modified by social support. We generated Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for demographic, clinical, lifestyle/behavioral, and social factors to estimate HRs and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). The mean age was 63 (SD, 7.3), and majority of participants were White race (83.5%) and married or in a marriage-like relationship (63.0%). In analyses stratified by ER status, there was no relationship between stressful life events and ER-positive breast cancer. In contrast, compared with women in the lowest quartile, those in higher quartiles had an increased risk of ER-negative breast cancer, where those in quartile 4 had the highest risk (Quartile 4 vs. Quartile 1; HR = 1.30; 95%CI, 1.01-1.68; Ptrend = 0.050). Moreover, associations were stronger for the highest versus lowest quartile of stressful life events among widowed women (HR = 2.39; 95%CI, 1.29-4.44; Pinteraction<0.001). Association between stressful life events and ER-negative breast cancer was not modified by social support. In this cohort of postmenopausal women, higher experiences of prediagnostic stressful life events were associated with increased risk of ER-negative breast cancer.Prevention relevanceEpidemiologic studies on the association between psychosocial stress and breast cancer risk remain inconsistent, while investigation of whether the association differs by ER status is limited. In this prospective cohort of postmenopausal women, high experiences of stressful life events were positively associated with ER-negative disease but not ER-positive.

Project description:INTRODUCTION:Maintenance of cognitive function into old age is important for ageing populations. Researchers seek to identify modifiable risk and protective factors for cognitive function. One such modifiable factor is functional social support, that is, one's perception of whether their social network can provide resources such as material help, companionship, information and emotional contact, if needed. While the literature generally reports positive associations between functional social support and cognitive function, results vary according to study methods such as the tool used to measure functional social support or the specific cognitive domain under investigation. Our review will summarise the association between functional social support and cognitive function in middle-aged and older-aged adults who reside in any setting (eg, community dwelling, long-term care facilities). We will also identify sources of discrepant findings between studies. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:This protocol was reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols guideline. PubMed, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Scopus will be searched from inception to the present using a search strategy developed with a medical librarian's help. We will supplement the database searches with a grey literature search. English-language or French-language studies with a comparison group will be subject to inclusion, regardless of the measures used to assess functional social support or cognitive function. We will assess risk of bias with the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool-Version 2 or the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, narratively synthesise the extracted data and conduct a meta-analysis of studies with similar characteristics (eg, sample age and sex, cognitive function outcomes). Two independent raters will screen articles and assess risk of bias. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:This review is timely given the push toward early diagnosis and treatment of dementia/major neurocognitive disorder and other types of cognitive impairment. This protocol does not require a formal ethics review. We will publish our findings in a peer-reviewed journal.

Dataset Information

Stressful events, social support, and cognitive function in middle-aged adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.

Publications

Stressful events, social support, and cognitive function in middle-aged adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets