PREDICTIVE MODEL OF MEMORY STATUS IN OLDER ADULTS

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DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from investigator's abstract) Eighty percent of the cognitive complaints from the 31.6 million older people in the United States are memory related. When they have a memory problem, older adults have no way of knowing whether they are in danger of impending doom or are experiencing a transient mistake. The purposes of this study are: (1) to determine whether metamemory is associated with memory performance among the elderly; (2) to determine whether the relationship between memory performance and metamemory varies depending on health, depression, and self-efficacy beliefs; and (3) to determine whether the relationship between memory performance and metamemory varies by age, gender, race, and education of the elder. To date researchers interested in cognitive phenomena have not adequately incorporated potential mediating factors into their theories or investigations. This study will provide a beginning knowledge of alterable physical, emotional, and perceptual factors which may influence the relationship between metamemory and memory. One cohort of 300 older adults, 150 African and 150 Caucasian Americans, aged 70 and older and living in the community will be drawn by random telephone sampling to participate in this study. Individuals will be first screened over the telephone and later in the home for cognitive impairment. Those with cognitive impairment will be excluded from the study. Data collection will occur over 12 months. The long term objective of the research is to provide a basis for nurses to develop cognitive intervention programs to improve the memory performance of older adults.