Neuroticism is the best predictor of lower emotional resilience during the COVID‒19-related confinement periods

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated distancing measures dramatically affect psychoaffective health, and this is accentuated in older adults who are more vulnerable to the situation. In this study, we are interested in the predictors of emotional resilience in healthy older adults, and also on how the repetition of confinement periods could influence this resilience and its predictors. Method 102 cognitively unimpaired older adults from the Age-Well cohort were included. They all completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-42) during each period of national confinement (April and November 2020), used here as a measure of emotional resilience (lower scores indicating greater resilience). Baseline measures from the Age-Well study, all acquired before the pandemic, were used as predictors, including demographics (age, sex, education), personality (Big Five Inventory), psychological (anxiety [STAI-B], depression [GDS]), lifestyle (Lifetime of experience questionnaire), global cognitive functioning (Mattis-DRS) and neuroimaging data (hippocampal volume, brain perfusion, amyloid burden). We ran stepwise regressions to predict emotional resilience during the first confinement. Then, we used paired t-test to assess the evolution of emotional resilience between the two confinements. Finally, we replicated the stepwise regressions to predict changes in resilience over time ('second-minus-first' confinement). Result Neuroticism was the only significant predictor of the DASS-42 score during the first confinement (?=.48;p<.001;Figure-1), lower neuroticism being associated with better resilience. We found the DASS-42 score to increase significantly from the first to the second confinement, indicating decreased emotional resilience over time. Moreover, higher neuroticism (?=.53;p<.001) and higher agreeableness (?=.20;p=.03) were associated with higher DASS-42 increase over time (Figure-2). Conclusion Our study suggests that lower neuroticism is the main predictor of greater emotional resilience to the COVID-19-related confinement. Importantly, the repetition of the confinement situation is associated with a decrease in emotional resilience in older adults, especially if they are prone to experience distress (neuroticism) or have a particularly social personality (agreeableness). Overall, these results underline the increasing need, as the crisis persists, for a psychoaffective support of older adult.

The effect of remotely delivered lifestyle interventions on cognition in older adults without dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Up to 40% of dementias may be preventable via risk factor modification. This inference has motivated the development of lifestyle interventions for reducing cognitive decline. Typically delivered to older adults face-to-face, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated their adaptation for remote delivery. We systematically reviewed randomized controlled trials of remotely delivered lifestyle interventions (≥4 weeks duration and delivered >50% remotely), for adults aged ≥ 60 without dementia, examining effects on objective cognitive measures. Comparators were active (face-to-face or remote) or passive. Ten studies (n = 2967) comprising multidomain (k = 4), physical activity (k = 3) or psychosocial (k = 3) remote interventions were included. Data were synthesized using robust variance estimation meta-analysis. The pooled estimate comparing the effect of remote interventions versus comparators on cognition was not significant (g=-0.02; 95%CI [-0.14, 0.09]; p = .66); subgroup analyses by type of intervention or comparator also yielded non-significant effects. Most studies had low risk of bias. Current evidence to support remote lifestyle interventions is limited. Included studies were conducted pre-pandemic, and evaluated individual, rather than group interventions. Future studies may exploit the greater digital connectivity of older people since the pandemic. Group formats, more frequently efficacious than individual interventions in face-to-face dementia prevention trials, may be a rational approach for future remote trials.

Social connectedness and dementia prevention: Pilot of the APPLE-Tree video-call intervention during the Covid-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Covid-19 pandemic reduced access to social activities and routine health care that are central to dementia prevention. We developed a group-based, video-call, cognitive well-being intervention; and investigated its acceptability and feasibility; exploring through participants' accounts how the intervention was experienced and used in the pandemic context. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD: We recruited adults aged 60+ years with memory concerns (without dementia). Participants completed baseline assessments and qualitative interviews/focus groups before and after the 10-week intervention. Qualitative interview data and facilitator notes were integrated in a thematic analysis. RESULTS: 12/17 participants approached completed baseline assessments, attended 100/120 (83.3%) intervention sessions and met 140/170 (82.4%) of goals set. Most had not used video calling before. In the thematic analysis, our overarching theme was social connectedness. Three sub-themes were as follows: Retaining independence and social connectedness: social connectedness could not be at the expense of independence; Adapting social connectedness in the pandemic: participants strived to compensate for previous social connectedness as the pandemic reduced support networks; Managing social connections within and through the intervention: although there were tensions, for example, between sharing of achievements feeling supportive and competitive, participants engaged with various lifestyle changes; social connections supported group attendance and implementation of lifestyle changes. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Our intervention was acceptable and feasible to deliver by group video-call. We argue that dementia prevention is both an individual and societal concern. For more vulnerable populations, messages that lifestyle change can help memory should be communicated alongside supportive, relational approaches to enabling lifestyle changes.