UC Riverside

Stress and inflammation are two very common, but also very complex processes that may affect cognitive decline in late adulthood. This study examined how the self-report of psychological stress and inflammatory biomarkers levels may be related to differences in trajectories of cognitive performance in late adulthood. We found weak, non-significant association between psychological stress and inflammatory biomarkers levels. Analyses also suggested that the inflammatory pathway may be important to cognition in late adulthood, since dual change growth curve model results suggested that higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers (CRP and IL-6) were associated with decrements in some aspects of cognitive performance in late adulthood. Moreover, greater psychological stress was associated with decreases in some aspects of cognitive performance in late adulthood. Greater psychological stress and/or its timing was associated with significant differences in cognitive performance levels or change on a measure of spatial abilities (Block Design), perceptual speed abilities (Symbol Digit), verbal abilities (Synonyms), and episodic recognition memory (Thurstone Picture Memory). Although these findings suggested that both stress and inflammation affect cognitive decline in late adulthood, final analyses that incorporated both psychological stress and inflammatory biomarkers as predictors of cognitive decline in late adulthood suggested limited findings of mediation for a measure of episodic recognition memory (Thurstone Picture Memory).