Stress internalization increases risk of age-related cognitive decline in Chinese seniors

Stress internalization is a significant risk factor for age-related cognitive decline in older Chinese Americans, according to Rutgers Health researchers.

The study, published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease by researchers from the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, examined multiple risk and resilience factors associated with cognitive decline in Chinese adults older than 60.

Researchers chose to study this population because older Chinese Americans are historically underrepresented in brain aging research.

With the number of older Asian Americans growing significantly, it's vital to better understand the risk factors of memory decline in this understudied population." 

Michelle Chen, a core member of the Center for Healthy Aging Research in the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and lead author of the study

Researchers said the model minority stereotype – which portrays Asian Americans as consistently successful, educated and healthy – is a unique factor facing this population and their mental health. In this context, Chen and colleagues said older Asian Americans may endure stress from experiencing language and cultural barriers. Other immigrant groups in the U.S. also may experience stress associated with language and cultural barriers, according to the researchers.

"Stress and hopelessness may go unnoticed in aging populations, yet they play a critical role in how the brain ages," said Chen, who is also an assistant professor of neurology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "Because these feelings are modifiable, our goal is for this research to inform culturally sensitive stress-reduction interventions to mitigate these feelings in older adults."

The researchers analyzed data from the largest community-based cohort study on older Chinese Americans, the Population Study of ChINese Elderly (PINE), which included interviews conducted between 2011 to 2017 with more than 1,500 participants in the Chicago area. They focused on three sociobehavioral factors examined through the study: stress internalization, neighborhood or community cohesion and external stress alleviation.

The researchers found that stress internalization, consisting of hopelessness or a tendency to absorb and internalize stressful experiences, showed a strong association with memory decline over three waves of the PINE study. The other factors weren't associated with a decline in memory functioning over time.

This study was supported by the Rutgers-NYU Resource Center for Alzheimer's and Dementia Research in Asian and Pacific Americans, co-led by William Hu of Rutgers Institute for Health and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Coauthors of the study include Yiming Ma, Charu Verma, Stephanie Bergren and William Hu of Rutgers Institute for Health.