| Poster | Poster Session 11 Program Schedule
02/17/2024
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)
Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology | Education/Training | Professional Practice Issues
Final Abstract #62
Sex Differences in Subjective Cognitive Decline and Global Cognition in Older Latino Adults from the Boston Latino Aging Study
Jairo Martinez, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Boston University, Boston, United States
Monica Vila Quispe, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Anaïs Pite, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Diana Munera, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Alex Badillo Cabrera, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Nikole Bonillas Felix, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Averi Giudicessi, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Boston University, Boston, United States
Elizabeth Kaplan, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Clara Vila Castelar, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Liliana Ramirez-Gomez, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Marta Gonzalez Catalan, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Alice Cronin-Golomb, Boston University, Boston, United States
Rebecca Amariglio, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Yakeel Quiroz, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Boston University, Boston, United States
Category: Dementia (Alzheimer's Disease)
Keyword 1: memory complaints
Keyword 2: cognitive functioning
Keyword 3: ethnicity
Objective:
Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) is associated with risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Latinos are underrepresented in AD research despite having a greater prevalence of dementia and greater SCD than non-Latino whites. Sex differences in SCD remain poorly understood, particularly in Latinos. Studying the relation of sex, SCD, and cognition in older Latinos may inform us about the clinical trajectory of AD in this vulnerable population. We examined sex in a community sample of older Latinos and its relation to SCD and global cognition.
Participants and Methods:
Participants included 108 cognitively unimpaired older adults (77 females, mean age=68 years [SD=8], mean education=12 years [SD=5]; 31 males, mean age=65 years [SD=7], mean education=12 years [SD=5]) from the Boston Latino Aging Study (BLAST). Participants were administered the Cognitive Function Instrument (CFI), a 14-item questionnaire used to assess SCD, where a higher score indicates greater SCD. A subsample (n=62; 39 females, 23 males) had study partners who completed the partner-reported CFI to assess participant SCD from the perspective of an informant (64% female for female participants; 78% female for male participants). Participants underwent testing of global cognition using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Mann-Whitney U and chi-square tests were used to examine group differences in age, education, global cognition, SCD, and study partner sex. Spearman correlations were used to examine associations among age, education, global cognition, and SCD.
Results:
There were no group differences in age, education, MMSE, self-reported CFI, study partner-reported CFI, or study partner sex (all p’s>.05). Self-reported CFI was negatively associated with education in females (r=-.33, p=.004) but not males (r=-.14, p=.47) and was not associated with age in either group (p’s>.05). Study partner-reported CFI was negatively associated with education in female participants (r=-.43, p=.006) but not males (r=-.30, p=.17) and was positively associated with age in male participants (r=.51, p=.01) but not females (r=-.04, p=.83). In female participants, greater study partner-reported CFI was associated with poorer MMSE performance after controlling for age and education (r=-.45, p=.006). Self-reported CFI was not associated with MMSE performance in females (r=-.10, p=.39). Neither self-reported CFI (r=.06, p=.76) nor study-partner reported CFI (r=-.02, p=.93) were associated with MMSE in male participants.
Conclusions:
Preliminary results indicate that greater study partner-reported SCD may be related to poorer global cognition in cognitively unimpaired older Latina females, but not males. This finding supports previous research suggesting that study partners may be more sensitive to subtle cognitive changes before clinical onset in females versus males, possibly due to socio-cultural factors. A majority of female study partners may have driven our results. The impact of study partner sex on SCD should be further studied. Having small and unequal sample sizes between sexes is a limitation of this study. Future studies with larger samples should examine self-reported and study partner-reported SCD in males and females and their associations with cognitive decline, socio-cultural factors, and other AD-related biomarkers to elucidate the role of sex in SCD at the preclinical and early stages of AD.
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