The association between self-rated health, number of family members, and cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults: Mediating role of depression.

With the increasing number of older adults, research on cognitive function has expanded. However, studies examining the mediating effect of depression on the association between complex factors and cognitive function in older adults are still insufficient. Additionally, there is a lack of studies that have investigated these relationships by integrating multiple factors related to the cognitive function of older adults. Therefore, our study investigated the association between the number of family members, self-rated health, depression, and cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults and highlighted the mediating role of depression in these relationships. We used data from 218 older adults aged over 65 collected in a previous study. The independent variables were the number of family members and self-rated health, and the dependent variable was cognitive function measured by the cognitive impairment screening test (CIST). The mediation variable was depression measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the association between the independent, dependent, and mediation variable. The mean ages of the participants were 81.71 (standard deviation [SD] = 6.00) years, with 198 females (90.83%) and 20 males (9.17%). The structural equation model demonstrated a good model fit (chi-square value = 33.375; degrees of freedom = 24; p-value = 0.0964; RMSEA = 0.042; CFI = 0.970; TLI = 0.956; SRMR = 0.042). Self-rated health and the number of family members were not directly associated with cognitive function; however, depression had significant indirect effects (self-rated health to cognitive function: coefficient = -0.023, p-value = 0.017; number of family members and cognitive function: coefficient = 0.012, p-value = 0.030). Our findings indicated that depression plays a crucial mediating role between self-rated health, number of family members, and cognitive function. The results highlight the need for comprehensive strategies for mental health care to support cognitive health in older adults.

A curtailed task for quantitative evaluation of visuomotor adaptation in the head-mounted display virtual reality environment.

To accurately perform a goal-directed movement in continuously changing environments, it is unavoidable for individuals to adapt accordingly. The cerebellum has been known to be responsible for such process, specifically adaptation using sensorimotor information. As shown in previous studies, using HMD-VR technology in an experimental setting has similar advantages as in the real-world environment: researchers can manipulate the experimental environment, precisely control the experiments, and quantitatively analyze errors in real time. Moreover, the HMD-VR environment provides high immersiveness and embodiment which even enhance motor learning and increase engagement and motivation of individuals more than real-world environments do. In our HMD-VR-based task, the subjects were trained to adapt to a condition in which the visual information was artificially 20°clockwise rotated from the actual cursor movement. The subjects used a virtual reality tracker to move the cursor from a starting point to a target that appeared randomly at five locations, 20 cm from the starting point with an interval of 15°. Although no significant side effects were expected from experiencing the HMD-VR environment, we considered the appropriate number of trials for patients with cerebellar disease for future use in clinical settings. To examine the feasibility of our task for analysis of visuomotor adaptation pattern as shown in a real-world-based task, we created and compared two paradigms with a difference in the number of trials. As we expected, the results showed that the heading angle error decreased as the participants of both paradigms continued the task and that there was no significant difference between the two paradigms. Next, we applied our short task paradigm to patients diagnosed with cerebellar ataxia and age-matched controls for further examination of applicability to diagnosis and rehabilitation of the patients. As a result, we observed the distinguishable adaptation pattern of the patient group by using our paradigm. Overall, the results suggest that our paradigm is feasible to analyze the visuomotor adaptation pattern of healthy individuals and patients with cerebellar ataxia so may contribute to the clinical field.