Emotion perception and quality of life in aging

Abstract

Background; Quality of Life (QoL) and Social Functioning (SF) can be negatively impacted in Normal Aging (NA) and diseases of aging e.g. Alzheimers disease (AD) and Stroke, which can lead to suboptimal recovery from illness and put individuals at greater risk of depression and anxiety. Perceiving and interpreting emotional information is essential for successful social interaction and difficulties in Emotion Perception (EP) has been shown to occur in NA, AD and stroke. We hypothesised an association between EP difficulties and reduced QoL and SF. Method; Across 2 studies 85 Individuals, NA (n= 30), AD (n= 27), and stroke (n = 28) completed measures of EP (FEEST, Florida Affect Battery and TASIT), SF (mFLP) and QoL (WHO-QoL-BREF). Results: AD performed worse than NA on EP, t(55) = 4.83, with no group difference in QoL, t(55) = 0.58. Correlations between EP and QoL in NA (r= .46) and AD (r= .59) weren’t explained by disease severity or mood. In Stroke, EP correlated with SF limitations(r=.46) and psychological QoL (r-.48). Conclusions; EP difficulties in NA, AD and stroke negatively impacted QoL and SF. Taken together, these results indicate that EP difficulties accompanying NA, AD and stroke may have far-reaching implications for the quality of life and engagement in social participation of many older adults. Further exploration of the links between different forms of social cue decoding and social functioning in NA, AD and stroke is required in order to target interventions effectively in the future.