Predictors of cognitive complaints in older adults: a mixture regression approach

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Abstract
The present paper examined four hypotheses regarding the nature of cognitive complaints in older adults. Analyzing data from 607 participants (mean age=62.9 years, SD=0.92 years, 59–65 years), we tested the influence of actual cognitive test performance, negative age stereotypes, depressive symptoms, neuroticism, and conscientiousness on cognitive complaints. Bivariate correlations confirmed relations of all hypothesized predictors with cognitive complaints. However, considering all predictors simultaneously in an OLS regression analysis, particularly depressive symptoms and neuroticism were revealed as accounting for large proportions of variance in cognitive complaints. Utilizing mixture regression analyses, evidence for distinct subgroups was obtained in which cognitive complaints were explained by different predictor patterns.