Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders (대한치매학회지)

Korean Dementia Association (대한치매학회)
권호 표지

The Characteristics and Subtypes of Subjective Memory Impairment in Older Adults

노인의 주관적 기억 장애의 특징 및 하위 유형

  • Chin, Ju-Hee (Department of Psychology, Yonsei University) ;
  • Oh, Kyung-Ja (Department of Psychology, Yonsei University) ;
  • Seo, Sang-Won (Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine) ;
  • Shin, Hee-Young (Center for Health Promotion, Samsung Medical Center) ;
  • Na, Duk-L. (Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine)
  • 진주희 (연세대학교 심리학과) ;
  • 오경자 (연세대학교 심리학과) ;
  • 서상원 (삼성서울병원 신경과, 성균관대학교 의과대학 신경과학교실) ;
  • 신희영 (삼성서울병원 건강의학센터) ;
  • 나덕렬 (삼성서울병원 신경과, 성균관대학교 의과대학 신경과학교실)
  • Published : 2010.12.30
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Abstract

Background: Subjective memory impairment (SMI) refers to a condition where people complain about memory problem despite intact cognition. The aims of this study were to examine he specific characteristics of memory complaints using Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (MMQ) and to investigate whether there were subgroups among the SMI subjects. Methods: A total of 252 subjects with SMI were recruited from a health promotion center. These subjects did not have previous history of dementia or cognitive impairment and performed normally on the Korean-Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE). A group of 196 individuals served as healthy controls (HC) recruited from the same center. Both SMI and HC groups underwent KMMSE, short version of Geriatric Depression Scale (S-GDS) and MMQ which consisted of 3 subscales: Memory contentment (MMQ-C), memory ability (MMQ-A) and memory strategy (MMQ-S). SMI were analyzed according to 3 subscales of MMQ. Results: SMI group showed the lower scores on the MMQ-C and MMQ-A and the higher scores on the S-GDS and MMQ-S than HC group, but no significant difference on K-MMSE scores between groups. Three clusters of SMI subjects were identified according to MMQ- A, MMQ-S and S-GDS. Cluster 1 contained subjects with lower memory contentment, more memory complaints and less use of memory strategy than HC. Cluster 2 subjects presented lower memory contentment, more memory complaints and more use of memory strategy. Subjects in cluster 3 showed prominent depression, severe discontentment about memory and memory complaints. Conclusions: Our results indicate that SMI group might be heterogeneous and could be divided into subgroups according to specific features of memory complaints. Furthermore we could suggest that memory questionnaire is useful to evaluate various features of SMI and some SMI subjects might be closely related with psychological problem such as depression.

Keywords

References

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