{"doi":"10.1111/jgs.18425","title":"Subjective cognitive decline and missed aging‐in‐place/long‐term care planning","abstract":"Older adults often use the term “senior moment” to describe subjective cognitive decline (SCD). A “senior moment” is the term older adults use when they have lapses in their memory (e.g., misplaced parked car, word finding delays, face-name recognition challenges). SCD is defined as patients self-describing subtle cognitive deterioration without the testing support of a neuropsychological assessment.1 Although older adults may claim “having a senior moment” as a justification for lapses in their memory, SCD has been identified as a precursor to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) through further clinical testing.2-4 Many older adults identify worsening memory loss due to AD to be an advanced life event that impedes aging-in-place (AIP), which is the ability to safely live in one's own home.5 While AIP is a goal of many older adults, those who develop AD may require via enhanced home-based support or even long-term care (LTC) as the disease progresses.6 However, adequate planning for AIP/LTC is required to ensure the older adult's wishes are maintained.7 We hypothesized that older adults who experience SCD may be more likely to plan for their AIP/LTC needs, recognizing that it may progress to AD. We sought to examine if self-reports of SCD was associated with increased AIP/LTC planning and older adult perceptions of SCD. The Plan Your Lifespan (PYL) longitudinal research study evaluates AIP planning and decision-making, specifically with AD.7-10 Subjects were recruited from the LitCog study (n = 800); a cohort of older adults 65+ who participate in extensive neuropsychological cognitive testing every 2.5 years. Cognitive testing was grouped into three categories: no impairment, mild cognitive impairment, and moderate dementia.8 PYL subjects are further surveyed and provided with the intervention, PlanYourLifespan.org, which facilitates AIP/LTC decision-making/planning.9 SCD is measured through a Yes/No question asking if the subject has experienced memory loss with open ended follow-up for perception of the memory loss. Responses were analyzed using a mixed-methods approach. For qualitative analysis, open-ended responses were coded by three coders using constant comparative analysis with triangulation of themes. Chi-square tests were utilized to examine differences between cognitive groups. Research staff conduct telephone interviews at baseline, 1-month, 6-month and then every 6-months following. The survey includes items on decision-making, communication of plans, plan implementation, and goal concordance. Participant are asked if they have experienced memory loss, how often, their perceptions of the memory loss. Of 293 subjects, mean age was 73.0 years, 72.7% female, 66.8% (n = 196) White, 28.7% (n = 84) Black, 5.1% (n = 16) Hispanic or Latino, 3.1% (n = 9) Asian, 1.4% (n = 4) more than one race. Almost half (47.4%, n = 139) reported SCD, with 42.4% (n = 59) experiencing weekly and 18% (n = 25) monthly. For cognition levels, 22.2% (n = 65) of participants had mild or moderate cognitive impairment, 46.2% (n = 30) of these participants denied experiencing any SCD. Of those with normal cognitive testing (n = 218), 47.8% (n = 104) reported SCD. There was no statistically significant association found between (1) experiencing SCD and AIP/LTC planning in the event of AD (p > 0.05) and (2) testing at levels of mild/moderate cognitive impairment and AIP/LTC planning (p > 0.05). Subjects who reported SCD (47.4%, n = 139), 78.4% (n = 109) stated it was normal for their age. Qualitative analysis revealed five major themes surrounding this belief: (1) Comparison to forgetful peers, (2) Prior experience with others, (3) Inevitability, (4) Consulted with primary care provider, and (5) Denial (Table 1). Although SCD can be a precursor to AD, experiencing SCD did not impact older adult planning for AIP. There was no urgency to plan, even as lapses in memory became more frequently. Possible reasons were the prominent belief that it S","journal":"Journal of the American Geriatrics Society","year":2023,"id":379657,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9611,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1104563,"name":"Allison Schierer","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1104565,"name":"Raven Relerford","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1104564,"name":"Alaine Murawski","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":110280,"name":"Lauren Opsasnick","orcid":"0000-0001-6345-7276","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1104566,"name":"Charles Olvera","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":110282,"name":"Laura M. Curtis","orcid":"0000-0003-2380-2201","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1144805,"name":"Kwang‐Youn Kim","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":721421,"name":"Vanessa Ramirez‐Zohfeld","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302259,"name":"Lee A. Lindquist","orcid":"0000-0002-4290-5081","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":721420,"name":"Amber Miller‐Winder","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":9,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:16:56.650289Z","pmid":"37235515","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}