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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1427139

The Association of Diabetes Risk with Changes in Memory, Working Memory, and Processing Speed Among Older Adults

Provisionally accepted
Jungjoo Lee Jungjoo Lee 1*Junhyoung Kim Junhyoung Kim 2Sang Joon An Sang Joon An 3
  • 1 University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, United States
  • 2 Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas, United States
  • 3 College of Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University, Incheon, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: This study investigated the risk of diabetes by examining changes in memory, working memory, and processing speed among older adults to provide evidence on how each cognitive domain is associated with the risk of diabetes in older adults. Methods: This study used Health and Retirement Study data and tracked the respondents from 2012 to 2020 (n = 5,748). The Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status-27 includes three cognitive tests (recall, seven subtraction, and counting backward tests) to assess each cognitive domain. A Cox Proportional Hazard Regression was employed to calculate the changes in the Odds Ratio (OR) of diabetes by increasing each cognitive function and the parameter in covariates.Results: We found that the OR of diabetes decreased with increasing universal cognitive function, increasing memory, working memory, and processing speed, and that age increased the OR in all analysis models.Conclusions: The findings of this study contribute to filling gaps in the literature by exploring:(a) the association between each cognitive function and the decline in diabetes risk, and (b) the varying patterns of change in diabetes risk with increasing cognitive function.

    Keywords: older adults, Risk of diabetes, Memory, working memory, processing speed

    Received: 03 May 2024; Accepted: 30 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lee, Kim and An. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jungjoo Lee, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.