Search

Objective: Purpose in life tends to decline in older adulthood and it is thought that intact cognitive functioning is required for purposeful living. Thus, it is likely that individuals may perceive older adults who are experiencing cognitive declines associated with dementia as having a reduced sense of purpose. Biases such as these may influence how individuals, especially care partners, interact with those with dementia.Method: This study examined how sense of purpose changed following a dementia diagnostic appointment for both the person receiving a diagnosis and their care partner. This study also explored how each individual perceived the other member of the dyad’s sense of purpose. Older adults (47 care recipients and 75 care partners, 57% female; Mage = 68.5 years, SDage = 12.0 years) provided self- and other-report ratings of sense of purpose before and after their appointment at a specialized memory clinic.Results: Overall, both care recipients and care partners’ sense of purpose declined following a dementia diagnostic appointment [t(85) = 7.01, p < 0.001]. However, when comparing self-reports and other-reports of purpose, care partners reported that care recipients experienced a lower sense of purpose in life than the care recipients reported about themselves.Conclusions: Care recipients and partners reported less purpose in life following their dementia diagnostic appointment. Care partners may hold certain biases regarding sense of purpose toward care recipients. These findings can inform future work regarding how care recipients and care partners can plan purposeful lives following a dementia diagnosis.

Objective: To determine the longitudinal relationship between monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1)/CCL2 and memory function in older adults.Methods: We examined longitudinal plasma MCP-1/CCL2 levels and a longitudinal verbal memory measure (CVLT-II 20’ recall) in a sample of 399 asymptomatic older adults (mean age = 72.1). Total visits ranged from 1 to 8, with an average time of 2.1 years between each visit, yielding 932 total observations. In order to isolate change over time, we decomposed MCP-1/CCL2 into subject-specific means and longitudinal deviations from the mean. The decomposed MCP-1/CCL2 variables were entered as predictors in linear mixed effects models, with age at baseline, sex, and education entered as covariates and recall as the longitudinal outcome. In follow-up analyses, we controlled for global cognition and APOE genotype, as well as baseline vascular risk factors. We also examined the specificity of findings by examining the longitudinal association between the MCP-1/CCL2 variables and non-memory cognitive tests.Results: Within-subject increases in MCP-1/CCL2 levels were associated with decreases in delayed recall (t = −2.65; p = 0.01) over time. Results were independent of global cognitive function and APOE status (t = −2.30, p = 0.02), and effects remained when controlling for baseline vascular risk factors (t = −1.92, p = 0.05). No associations were noted between within-subject increases in MCP-1/CCL2 levels and other cognitive domains.Conclusions: In an asymptomatic aging adult cohort, longitudinal increases in MCP-1/CCL2 levels were associated with longitudinal decline in memory. Results suggest that “healthy aging” is typified by early remodeling of the immune system, and that the chemokine, MCP-1/CCL2, may be associated with negative memory outcomes.