DALLAS: Researchers have found that people who struggle to cope with stressful situations in their twenties may have worse memory and thinking skills in their fifties.
The team followed 3,126 people over a 25 year period. At the start of the study, all volunteers (men and women with an average age of 25) completed questionnaires about their hostility levels and their attitude to coping when exposed to repeated stressful events. Two years after the start of the study, everyone taking part completed a memory and thinking skills test. Throughout the study, the researchers measured depressive symptoms in volunteers and also asked whether the volunteers had experienced discrimination. After 25 years, the research team asked the volunteers about their education level and collected information on cardiovascular risk factors, smoking and alcohol consumption. At the end of the study, volunteers completed a second, more comprehensive, memory and thinking skills assessment.
When the team took into account education level, discrimination, depression, cardiovascular health and other factors, they found that people who rated themselves as less good at coping with stressful situations in their 20s had worse memory and thinking skills in their 50s. There was no association between hostility and memory and thinking skills later in life when factors like education, depression and cardiovascular risk factors were taken into account…