Impact of Depression and Nicotine Dependence on Executive Functioning in Rural Older Adult Smokers: A Brief Report (NCT02510716).
Devon Noonan, Nikolas J Silva, Shawn M McClintock and 1 others
PMID 34855323WHAT IT FOUND
Among 40 rural older smokers, 32.5% reported mild to severe executive function problems.
Depression and higher nicotine dependence were linked to worse self-reported executive function.
Key findings
0132.5% of participants reported mild to severe executive function difficulties on the overall self-reported executive function score.
02Older smokers who screened positive for depression reported worse executive function than those who screened negative, with mean overall scores of 63.4 and 47.1.
03Moderate/high nicotine dependence had a higher mean behavioral regulation score than mild dependence, 58.3 versus 52.3, but not overall executive function or metacognition.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The analysis included only 40 participants from two rural North Carolina clinics, so it is small and may not apply to other older adult smokers. It was a secondary analysis of baseline data from a pilot trial, not a test of the cessation intervention. Executive function was measured by self-report rather than objective testing. The significance threshold was relaxed to 0.10 because the study was exploratory. Depression and nicotine dependence interactions could not be tested because of the small sample size. The study did not examine whether baseline executive function predicted quitting, because too few participants quit.
Declared interests
All authors reported no conflict of interest. No funding source is stated in the paper.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that treating depression or nicotine dependence will improve executive function or help older adults quit smoking. This was a small secondary analysis of baseline self-report data, and it did not test a treatment or cessation outcome.