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Abstract

It is crucial to investigate factors that alleviate the negative association between subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and community participation to identify intervention targets for facilitating community participation in aging adults. This study aimed to investigate whether social support and compensatory strategy use mediate the association between SCD and community participation. This is a cross-sectional study with 93 community-dwelling aging adults. The data was collected using a survey method. We tested two individual regression-based mediation models with social support and compensatory strategy use as mediators. Social support (Indirect effect β = −0.097, 98% confidence interval = −4.481 to −0.651), but not compensatory strategy use (p > .05), partially mediated the association between SCD and community participation. Occupational therapy practitioners may wish to address social support to reduce the negative association between SCD and community participation in aging adults. Additional studies are required to recommend compensatory strategy use to mitigate the negative association between SCD and community participation.

Plain Language Summary

Social Support, but Not Compensatory Strategy Use, Mediates the Association between Subjective Cognitive Decline and Community Participation in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Many aging adults report declines in their cognitive ability (i.e., subjective cognitive decline) such as worsening memory. Subjective cognitive ability refers to the self-perception of cognitive ability. Subjective cognitive decline is associated with poor community participation. Community participation refers to an individual’s engagement in multiple aspects of community life, such as employment, leisure, and social activities. Thus, it is critical to understand factors that may play a role in the association between subjective cognitive decline and community participation to improve community participation in aging adults. Social support may be a factor influencing subjective cognitive decline and community participation. Social support refers to the experience of being valued, respected, cared about, and loved by others who are present in one’s life. Another factor that may influence subjective cognitive decline and community participation is compensatory strategy use. Compensatory strategy use refers to the use of environmental modifications or behavioral strategies to compensate for difficulties in performing of and participating in daily activities. In this study, we investigated if social support and/or compensatory strategy use mediate the association between subjective cognitive decline and community participation in aging adults. Our results suggested that social support partially mediated the association between subjective cognitive decline and community participation in aging adults, whereas compensatory strategy use did not mediate this association. These findings suggest that occupational therapy practitioners may wish to address social support to reduce the impacts of subjective cognitive decline on community participation in aging adults. However, additional studies are needed to recommend compensatory strategy use to mitigate the negative association between subjective cognitive decline and community participation.

Keywords

subjective cognitive decline compensatory strategy social support community participation mediation

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Investigating Social Support and Compensation Mediators for Subjective Cognition and Community Participation

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