Main and moderated effects of multimorbidity and depressive symptoms on cognition

• Published in: Revista brasileira de psiquiatria Vol. 44; no. 6; pp. 644 - 649
• Main Authors: de Araujo, Jacyra Azevedo Paiva, Xavier, Érika Fialho Morais, Rodrigues, Elisângela da Silva, Machado, Daiane Borges, Barreto, Marcos E., Kanaan, Richard A., Barreto, Mauricio L., Castro-de-Araujo, Luis Fernando Silva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria 30.09.2022
• Subjects: Brief Communication; PSYCHIATRY; epidemiology; aging; structural equation modeling; Multimorbidity
• ISSN: 1516-4446; 1809-452X; 1809-452X
• DOI: 10.47626/1516-4446-2022-2601

Objective: Multimorbidity, or the occurrence of two or more chronic conditions, is a global challenge, with implications for mortality, morbidity, disability, and life quality. Psychiatric disorders are common among the chronic diseases that affect patients with multimorbidity. It is still not well understood whether psychiatric symptoms, especially depressive symptoms, moderate the effect of multimorbidity on cognition. Methods: We used a large (n=2,681) dataset to assess whether depressive symptomatology moderates the effect of multimorbidity on cognition using structural equation modelling. Results: It was found that the more depressive symptoms and chronic conditions, the worse the cognitive performance, and the higher the educational level, the better the cognitive performance. We found a significant but weak (0.009; p = 0.04) moderating effect. Conclusion: We have provided the first estimate of the moderating effect of depression on the relation between multimorbidity and cognition, which was small. Although this moderation has been implied by many previous studies, it was never previously estimated.