The Gerontologist
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Washburn, A. M.
Right arrow Articles by Walton, P. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Washburn, A. M.
Right arrow Articles by Walton, P. J.
The Gerontologist 43:203-212 (2003)
© 2003 The Gerontological Society of America

Assessment of Social Cognition in Frail Older Adults and Its Association With SocialFunctioning in the Nursing Home

Allyson M. Washburn, PhD1,, Laura P. Sands, PhD2 and Pamela J. Walton, MS1

Correspondence: Address correspondence to Allyson Washburn, PhD, Jewish Home, 302 Silver Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94112. E-mail: amwashburn{at}att.net

Purpose: The aims of this study were to reliably assess a range of social-cognitive functioning in frail seniors and to examine the association between measures of social cognition and nurses' ratings of residents' social functioning in a nursing home. Design and Methods: Forty nursing home residents with and without cognitive impairment completed 11 social cognition tasks on two occasions after assessment of their cognitive functioning with the Cambridge Cognitive Examination—Revised (CAMCOG), CAMCOG Executive Function, and two tests of working memory. Staff on the nursing units completed two measures of social behavior. Results: Participants completed the social cognition protocol without difficulty. The measures demonstrated good internal (median alpha =.75) and test–retest reliability (median correlation =.70). Four of the social cognition measures were significantly associated with the measures of cognitive functioning; three additional measures showed significant positive associations with subsets of the cognitive tests. Regression analyses revealed that measures of social cognition were significantly and independently associated with nurses' ratings of residents' social functioning after age, gender, education, and the four measures of cognitive functioning were controlled for. One measure of social cognition that assessed interpersonal problem-solving accounted for 45% of the variance in nurses' ratings of participants' social functioning (F = 41.35; df = 1,17; p <.001).Implications: Measures of social cognition assess a domain of functioning that is not evaluated by traditional tests of cognitive status. These measures are informative about frail, older adults' ability to understand and respond to others and could be used to predict patterns of social functioning in nursing homes and other naturalistic settings.

Key Words: Social cognition • Social functioning • Frail older adults • Nursing homes




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Gerontol. B Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci.Home page
A. M. Washburn and L. P. Sands
Social cognition in nursing home residents with and without cognitive impairment.
J. Gerontol. B. Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci., May 1, 2006; 61(3): P174 - P179.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
All GSA journals Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
Copyright © 2003 by The Gerontological Society of America.