Cognitive Differences in Subjective Cognitive Decline with and without Associated Worry.

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is a heterogenous concept that has been associated with future objective cognitive decline. Our objective was to assess the cognitive function of three groups: one with SCD who claimed to be worried about their symptoms, one with SCD who did not claim to be worried about their symptoms and one without SCD (control group). We designed a cross-sectional study including people from primary care units and a memory center. We collected socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of all participants who signed informed consent prior to inclusion. Those with current major depression, anxiety disorder and neurocognitive disorder were excluded. Cognitive evaluation was performed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test, Rey complex figure test, Trail Making Test A and B and Verbal Fluency Test. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample. We used Chi-Square to analyze categorical variables, ANOVA for normally distributed continuous variables and Kruskal-Wallis for non-normally distributed continuous variables. Statistically significance was established at p<0.05. There were 101 patients included in the analysis, of which 49.50% in the "Yes, and it worries me" group (A), 16.83% in the "Yes, but it does not worry me" (B) group and 33.66% in the control group (C) (participants who answered "No"). There was a statistically significant difference regarding age status (p=.048) between groups A and C. Participants who expressed worry regarding their SCD symptoms had an increased negative emotion trait compared to the control group. There were statistically significant differences in attention and immediate memory between groups A and C. Individuals with SCD and associated worry performed worse in auditory and verbal memory testing when compared to the control group. Longitudinal assessment is necessary to establish firm causal relationships between SCD, personality traits and cognitive function.