Cohabitation status influences subjective informant reports of daily functioning in aging Asian American adults

Objective Informant reports of daily functioning, and their associations with neuropsychological performance, have been shown to vary based on informant characteristics. However, associations among informant characteristics, reported functioning, and neuropsychological performance have not been examined with Asian American (AA) samples.Method We examined associations of informant characteristics with subjective informant reports of participants’ functioning (assessed via the Functional Activities Questionnaire [FAQ]), and potential moderating effects of these characteristics on associations between reported functioning and objective neuropsychological performance among aging AA adults in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center cohort (n = 259).Results Cohabiting informants reported significantly higher FAQ scores (worse participant daily functioning) compared to non-cohabiting informants (p=.007). However, cohabitation status was not shown to be significantly associated with neuropsychological performance, nor was it shown to moderate associations between FAQ scores and neuropsychological performance, in any domain (ps>.05). Cohabitating participants did have higher rates of dementia diagnoses nonetheless (p=.008).Conclusions Although neuropsychological performance, as well as the degree to which subjective informant reports correspond with neuropsychological performance, does not vary as a function of cohabitation status among aging AA adults, differences in subjective reports of daily functioning based on cohabitation status may nonetheless influence diagnostic outcomes.