What predicts memory complaints of older individuals living in the Sardinian Blue Zone? An exploratory interdisciplinary approach

Memory complaints indicate the self-reported experience of memory failures or difficulties in daily life. While different measures of functional and psychological health seem to be associated with memory complaints in later life, the concurrent impact of perceived physical health, memory self-efficacy, and objectively measured motor and sleep parameters remains under-examined. This study addressed this gap by recruiting 118 community dwellers (M age = 81.7 years, SD = 8.1 years) from the Sardinian Blue Zone, an area characterized by exceptional longevity. Participants completed assessments for memory self-efficacy, memory complaints, perceived physical health and cognitive efficiency. Additionally, objective measures of physical activity (PA)—measured as the number of daily steps and time spent in sedentary behavior—and sleep efficiency were collected via wrist-worn activity trackers for 7 consecutive days. Hierarchical logistic regression revealed a significant final model (χ 2 (1) = 31.101, p < .001), with excellent calibration (Hosmer and Lemeshow test, χ 2 (1) = 7.484 p = .485). Better Perceived physical health (OR = 0.64, 95% CI 0.48, 0.84, p = .001) and memory self-efficacy (OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.67, 0.96, p = .014), reduced sedentary behavior (OR < 0.001, p = .018), and higher daily steps (OR = 1.00, p = .016) predicted fewer memory complaints, explaining 23.5% to 39.9% of the variance based on GDS-item10 score. In conclusion, objective data on mobility and sedentary behavior and subjective health-related evaluations converge to predict subjective memory complaints among older adults who are aging successfully. • Subjective memory complaints are jointly predicted by objective mobility patterns and subjective health-related evaluations. • Higher daily steps and lower sedentary time complement better perceived physical health and memory self-efficacy in predicting fewer memory complaints. • An active lifestyle characterized by higher daily steps, limited sedentary behaviors, in combination with a greater trust in one’s physical health and memory efficiency, seems to be crucial to age well.