Beyond single time point self‐report: EMA as a tool for understanding mood and cognition in older adults without dementia

Lower percent of "happy" days and greater percent of "neutral" mood days were related to higher GDS (ρ = -.385, p = .004; ρ = .416, p = .002). Neither EMA mood ratings nor the GDS were related to the cognitive composite. A greater percent of "not sharp" days was related to greater self-reported cognitive decline and functional difficulties (FAQ and Ecog) (ρ = .357, p = .009; ρ = .309, p = .002). Greater percent of "not sharp" days (and ECog) were significantly associated with a lower cognitive composite (ρ=-.279, p = .039; ρ=-.319, p = .018) and higher GDS score (ρ = .408, p = .002; ρ = .384, p = .004) CONCLUSION: Daily EMA mood and subjective cognition measures were significantly related to conventional clinical measures of mood, cognitive decline, and everyday function in expected directions. Subjective cognition (EMA and conventional measures) but not mood (EMA and GDS) was related to objective cognition. Results support the validity of conventional self-report measures and suggest EMA is a valid method for assessing older adults' mood and cognition "in the wild".