Aging
A Positive Outlook and the Aging Mind: Optimism and Cognitive Function in Older Women Hayami Koga* Hayami Koga Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Objectives: Optimism is associated with healthy aging, and cognitive health is a key component of healthy aging. Pathway studies of optimism and health suggest possible links between optimism and cognitive health, but few studies have examined this association. Here, we prospectively examine the association between optimism and global and domain-specific cognitive functioning.
Methods: Participants were 7,194 postmenopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) including 2,195 participants also enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging (WHISCA). Baseline optimism was measured using the Life Orientation Test-Revised. Cognitive function was assessed using the Modified Mini-Mental (3MS) in WHIMS and 8 additional cognitive tests in WHISCA. We examined associations between optimism and cognition over up to 10 years of follow-up, using linear mixed-effects models.
Results: Adjusting for demographics and probable depression, each increment in optimism was associated with better baseline cognitive function using 3MS in WHIMS (mean difference=0.093; 95% CI, 0.076, 0.111) and a global composite combining all tests in WHISCA (mean difference=0.063; 95% CI, 0.041, 0.084). Each increment in optimism was not significantly associated with cognitive decline in either cohort; however, when considering the highest quartile of optimism, a significant association with a slower annual rate of decline in global cognitive function was observed in WHIMS, compared to the lowest optimism quartile (mean difference=0.014, 95% CI 0.000, 0.027). Stratified analyses showed similar patterns in strata of non-Hispanic White and Black women.
Discussion: Optimism was significantly associated with higher baseline cognitive function and with cognitive decline. Overall, our results may indicate that optimism could provide a novel target to test for possible interventions to promote healthy cognitive aging.