Young adults who display hostile attitudes or who struggle to cope with stress may face a higher risk of memory and thinking problems decades later, according to research published online March 2, 2016, in Neurology.
Researchers found that certain personality traits measured in early adulthood — specifically hostility and a pattern the authors call “effortful coping” — were associated with worse cognitive performance 25 years later in midlife. The study followed 3,126 men and women from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, with average ages of about 25 at baseline and about 50 at follow-up.
Hostility in this research was assessed by questions that captured aggressive behavior, mistrust of others, and negative feelings about social relationships. Effortful coping was defined as the tendency to keep trying to reduce stress even when facing repeated obstacles. Participants were grouped into four levels (quartiles) based on their scores for each trait, and their cognitive abilities were measured at baseline and again roughly 25 years later using tests of verbal memory, psychomotor speed, and executive function.
The study reported that participants in the highest quartile for hostility or for effortful coping performed significantly worse on cognitive tests in midlife compared with those in the lowest quartile. On a specific verbal memory task that asked people to recall a list of 15 words, individuals with the most hostility in young adulthood remembered about 0.16 fewer words in midlife than those with the least hostility. Those with the highest level of effortful coping recalled up to 0.30 fewer words than those with the lowest level.
When cognitive performance was assessed using a composite Z score combining multiple cognitive tests, people in the highest quartile of hostility scored about 0.21 standard deviation units lower than those in the lowest quartile. Those in the highest quartile of effortful coping scored roughly 0.30 standard deviation units lower. These associations persisted after adjusting for age, sex, race, education, and baseline cognitive ability, as well as long-term exposure to depression, discrimination, and negative life events.
The investigators also examined whether cardiovascular risk factors could explain the link between personality and later cognition. After adjusting for cumulative exposure to cardiovascular risks such as hypertension and diabetes, the relationship between effortful coping and lower midlife cognition remained essentially unchanged. However, the association between hostility and the composite cognitive score was reduced after accounting for these cardiovascular factors, suggesting that part of the hostility–cognition link may be mediated by cardiometabolic risk.
Study author Lenore J. Launer, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health, emphasized that the study is observational and does not prove causation. “We may not think of our personality traits as having any bearing on how well we think or remember things, but we found that the effect of having a hostile attitude and poor coping skills on thinking ability was similar to the effect of more than a decade of aging,” she said. The findings point to an association, not a definitive causal pathway.
The authors note the potential public health importance of these results: if replicated in other studies, they raise the possibility that interventions aimed at reducing hostility and improving coping strategies or promoting positive social interactions might help lower the risk of cognitive decline later in life. Further research is needed to determine whether these psychological traits are modifiable in ways that would improve long-term cognitive outcomes.
Funding: The research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the National Institute on Aging.
Source: Rachel Seroka – AAN
Image Credit: The image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Hostile attitudes and effortful coping in young adulthood predict cognition 25 years later” by Emiliano Albanese, Karen A. Matthews, Julia Zhang, David R. Jacobs, Jr., Rachel A. Whitmer, Virginia G. Wadley, Kristine Yaffe, Stephen Sidney, and Lenore J. Launer in Neurology. Published online March 2, 2016. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000002517
Abstract
Hostile attitudes and effortful coping in young adulthood predict cognition 25 years later
Objective: To examine the relationship between psychological traits measured in early adulthood (mean age 25) — specifically hostile attitudes and effortful coping — and cognitive function in midlife (mean age 50).
Methods: Using data from 3,126 black and white participants born between 1955 and 1968 in the CARDIA study, researchers assessed baseline hostility (Cook-Medley questionnaire) and effortful coping in 1985–1986 and evaluated cognitive outcomes in 2010–2011. Linear regression models adjusted for demographic factors, education, baseline cognition, and long-term exposure to depression, discrimination, and negative life events.
Results: Higher baseline hostility and higher effortful coping were prospectively associated with lower cognitive performance 25 years later. Compared to the lowest quartile, those in the highest quartile of hostility performed 0.21 standard deviation units lower on a cognitive composite score, and those in the highest quartile of effortful coping performed 0.30 standard deviation units lower. Adjustment for cumulative cardiovascular risk factors attenuated the hostility association with the composite score but did not substantially change the relationship for effortful coping.
Conclusions: Two psychological characteristics measured in young adulthood — hostile attitudes and effortful coping — were independently associated with worse cognition in midlife. These findings suggest that promoting positive social interactions and adaptive coping strategies could be explored as potential approaches to reduce risk of cognitive decline later in life.