Memory complaint in a community sample aged 70 and older

OBJECTIVES: The ability of older people to estimate their Own memory, often referred to as "metamemory," has been evaluated in previous studies with c onflicting reports regarding accuracy. Some studies have suggested that an older person's metamemory is mostly accurate, whereas others have demonstra ted little relationship between memory complaint and actual impairment. Thi s study examines memory complaint in a large national sample of older peopl e aged greater than or equal to 70. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study with two waves of data collection space d 2 years apart. SETTING: A nationwide random sample of community-dwelling older persons. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 5444 community-dwelling persons aged greater than or equal to 70 and their spouses. MEASUREMENTS: Participants were asked if they believed their memory was exc ellent, very good, good, fair, or poor. They were then administered a cogni tive assessment derived from the Mini-Mental Status Exam. RESULTS: In general, people's assessment of their memory corresponded with their actual performance on cognitive measures. However, large portions of the sample inaccurately assessed their memory skills. People who reported d epressive symptoms and had impairment in activities of daily living were mo re likely to state that their memory was impaired, although they performed very well on cognitive measures. CONCLUSIONS: The conditions that skew people's self-assessment are the ones most likely to bring them into contact with healthcare professionals. This may give clinicians the general impression that older people cannot assess their own cognitive skills. However, poor metamemory appears to be a chara cteristic of a specific subgroup of older persons, not necessarily characte ristic of the general population.