Optimism and cognitive functioning trajectories in a cohort of aging men.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Robust evidence supports optimism as an asset for good physical and emotional health in aging populations, but its role in cognitive aging remains understudied. This study evaluated whether higher optimism levels would be prospectively associated with higher initial levels and slower decline in cognitive functioning over 26 years in a community-dwelling cohort of aging men.

Methods

Participants included 847 men from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study who completed the Revised Optimism-Pessimism scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 in 1986 and ≥1 cognitive assessment repeated triennially in 1993-2019. At each assessment, scores from seven cognitive tests were combined into a global composite and three domain-specific composites: verbal

SUBMITTER: Marino VR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12471349 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature