Lifestyle Factors Are Important Contributors to Subjective Memory Complaints among Patients without Objective Memory Impairment or Positive Neurochemical Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Many patients presenting to a memory disorders clinic for subjective memory complaints do not show objective evidence of decline on neuropsychological data, have nonpathological biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, and do not develop a neurodegenerative disorder. Lifestyle variables, including subjective sleep problems and stress, are factors known to affect cognition. Little is known about how these factors contribute to patients' subjective sense of memory decline. Understanding how lifestyle factors are associated with the subjective sense of failing memory that causes patients to seek a formal evaluation is important both for diagnostic workup purposes and for finding appropriate interventions and treatment for these persons, who are not likely in the early stages of a neurodegenerative disease. The current study investigated specific lifestyle variables, such as sleep and stress, to characterize those patients that are unlikely to deteriorate cognitively. METHODS: Two hundred nine patients (mean age 58 years) from a university hospital memory disorders clinic were included. RESULTS: Sleep problems and having much to do distinguished those with subjective, but not objective, memory complaints and non-pathological biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. CONCLUSIONS: Lifestyle factors including sleep and stress are useful in characterizing subjective memory complaints from objective problems. Inclusion of these variables could potentially improve health care utilization efficiency and guide interventions.