The association between psychological resilience and cognitive function in longitudinal data: Results from the community follow-up survey.

Background: The present study aimed to investigate the association between resilience and cognitive function of middle-aged Koreans in a longitudinal setting.

Methods: We utilized the baseline and 5-year follow-up data from the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Etiology Research Center study. The final number of participants included in the analysis was 397 (108 men, 289 women, mean age 55.4 years) who had valid measurements of both baseline resilience and Mini-Mental State Estimation at follow-up. The resilient people at baseline were operationally defined as the people who had at least one negative experience in the Life Experience Survey without depression, which was defined as a Beck Depressive Inventory-Ⅱ score of 20 or above. Cognitive function was evaluated by the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination in both surveys. A generalized linear model was applied after adjusting for confounders. The association between resilience and cognitive function was further analyzed using stratification by median age and education level.

Results: At follow-up, only in men, the resilience group showed a higher MMSE level compared to the reference group (β = 1.3, p = 0.002). Stratified by median age, both the younger group (β = 1.2, SE = 0.5, p = 0.031) and the older group among men (β = 2.1, SE = 0.7, p = 0.0069) showed a positive association between resilience and cognitive functions. However, when stratified by education level, only the low-education group presented the association (β = 1.7, SE = 0.5, p = 0.002). In women, no significant results were found.

Limitation: This study had limited number of participants.

Conclusion: Resilience at baseline was associated with more well-preserved cognitive function at follow-up in men.