Objective: To investigate the prevalence of subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) from Healthy Brain Ageing Study (HeBA) participants in Luxembourg, and explore risk factors prevalence which can influence its development.

Background: SCC has gained a growing interest due to its potential for earlier detection of mild cognitive impairment and dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Parkinson’s disease (PD). SCC is characterized by persistent, self-reported deterioration in cognitive performance without worsening neuropsychological outcomes compared to age, sex, and education-adjusted normative data. Concerns of developing neurodegenerative diseases and depression could lead to SCC. Hence, we expect individuals with an affected relative to be more at risk for SCC than individuals without an affective relative.

Method: Participants were recruited from the HeBA study; a population based online survey including self-reporting questionnaires. Participants marked whether they have/had or not a blood relative with PD or AD. We created a composite score for SCC by using the question number 12 and 15 of the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale and the additional question if their memory is poor or even very poor compared to their peers (3 points maximum). We defined a total score more or equal to two as SCC. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale.

Results: Currently, 1167 volunteers have completed the survey in Luxembourg, with 219 (18.2%) individuals reporting SCC. Of those 219 individuals, 15.5% state having relatives with AD and 16.4% have relatives with PD and AD. In contrast, 6.4% of the volunteers without SCC state having relatives affected with AD, and 9.4% with relatives affected with both PD and AD. In general, 465 (39.9%) respondents have self-reported depression. Among people with depression, 39.8% have relatives with neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, 65.8% of the individuals with SCC reported being depressed, thus indicating a higher prevalence of depression and higher emotional burden in this group.

Conclusion: The data showed a high prevalence of SCC and depression, especially in the subgroup that have relatives with neurodegenerative disorders. We seek to complete a deeper analysis and build a multi regression model for SCC and psychological well-being in participants of the HeBA study, as well as to assess objective cognitive impairments during in-person visits.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/subjective-cognitive-complaints-in-participants-of-the-healthy-brain-ageing-heba-study/