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Scientific article
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English

Fluid intelligence predicts change in depressive symptoms in later life: the lothian birth cohort 1936

Published inPsychological Science, vol. 29, no. 12, p. 1984-1995
Publication date2018
Abstract

We examined reciprocal, time-ordered associations between age-related changes in fluid intelligence and depressive symptoms. Participants were 1,091 community-dwelling older adults from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study who were assessed repeatedly at 3-year intervals between the ages of 70 and 79 years. On average, fluid intelligence and depressive symptoms worsened with age. There was also a dynamic-coupling effect, in which low fluid intelligence at a given age predicted increasing depressive symptoms across the following 3-year interval, whereas the converse did not hold. Model comparisons showed that this coupling parameter significantly improved overall fit and had a correspondingly moderately strong effect size, accounting on average for an accumulated 0.9 standard-deviation increase in depressive symptoms, following lower cognitive performance, across the observed age range. Adjustment for sociodemographic and health-related covariates did not significantly attenuate this association. This implies that monitoring for cognitive decrements in later life may expedite interventions to reduce related increases in depression risk.

Keywords
  • Intelligence
  • Depression
  • Longitudinal change
  • Lead-lag
  • Dynamic
Citation (ISO format)
AICHELE, Stephen et al. Fluid intelligence predicts change in depressive symptoms in later life: the lothian birth cohort 1936. In: Psychological Science, 2018, vol. 29, n° 12, p. 1984–1995. doi: 10.1177/0956797618804501
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ISSN of the journal0956-7976
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