Prospective Effects of Self-Rated Health on Dementia Risk in Two Twin Studies of Aging

• Published in: Behavior genetics Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 307 - 320
• Main Authors: Pilgrim, Matthew J. D., Beam, Christopher R., Nygaard, Marianne, Finkel, Deborah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.07.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Aging - genetics; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Dementia; Dementia - genetics; Dementia disorders; Dementia risk; Denmark; Female; Genetic diversity; Genetic risk; Health Psychology; Health Status; Humans; Male; Mental depression; Middle Aged; Prospective Studies; Psychology; Public Health; Ratings & rankings; Regression analysis; Risk assessment; Risk Factors; Self evaluation; Self Report; Self-rated health; Subjective health; Sweden; Twin studies; Twins; Twins, Dizygotic - genetics; Twins, Monozygotic - genetics; Denmark; Sweden; Dementia risk; Self-rated health; Genetic risk; Subjective health; Twins
• ISSN: 0001-8244; 1573-3297; 1573-3297
• DOI: 10.1007/s10519-024-10182-1

Subjective health ratings are associated with dementia risk such that those who rate their health more poorly have increased risk for dementia. The genetic and environmental mechanisms underlying this association are unclear, as prior research cannot rule out whether the association is due to genetic confounds. The current study addresses this gap in two samples of twins, one from Sweden ( N  = 548) and one from Denmark ( N  = 4,373). Using genetically-informed, bivariate regression models, we assessed whether additive genetic effects explained the association between subjective health and dementia risk as indexed by a latent variable proxy measure. Age at intake, sex, education, depressive symptomatology, and follow-up time between subjective health and dementia risk assessments were included as covariates. Results indicate that genetic variance and other sources of confounding accounted for the majority of the effect of subjective health ratings on dementia risk. After adjusting for genetic confounding and other covariates, a small correlation was observed between subjective health and latent dementia risk in the Danish sample ( r E  = − .09, p  < .05). The results provide further support for the genetic association between subjective health and dementia risk, and also suggest that subjective ratings of health measures may be useful for predicting dementia risk.