Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Association between Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Outcomes in Older Adults: Findings from KHANDLE and STAR

INTRODUCTION: Depressive symptoms are associated with higher risk of dementia but how they impact cognition in diverse populations is unclear. METHODS: Asian, Black, LatinX, or White participants (n=2,227) in the Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences (age 65+) and the Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (age 50+) underwent up to three waves of cognitive assessments over four years. Multilevel models stratified by race/ethnicity were used to examine whether depressive symptoms were associated with cognition or cognitive decline and whether associations differed by race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Higher depressive symptoms were associated with lower baseline verbal episodic memory scores (−0.06, 95%CI: −0.12, −0.01; −0.15, 95%CI: −0.25, −0.04), and faster decline annually in semantic memory (−0.04, 95%CI: −0.07, −0.01; −0.10, 95%CI: −0.15, −0.05) for Black and LatinX participants. Depressive symptoms were associated with lower baseline but not decline in executive function. DISCUSSION: Depressive symptoms were associated with worse cognitive domains, with some evidence of heterogeneity across racial/ethnic groups.