Evaluate measures used to operationalize apathy in relation to cognitive impairment among Hispanic/Latin Americans and synthesize associations of apathy with cognitive impairment.

A systematic review of the available literature following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was conducted. This review covered studies on the relationship between apathy and cognitive impairment among Hispanic/Latin Americans across normal aging and neurocognitive disorders. The first stage of the review consisted of collecting all publications that contained (1) English or Spanish-speaking participants, (2) with measures for reported apathy, (3) assessment of cognitive functioning or diagnosis of neurocognitive disorder, (4) with Hispanic/Latin Americans represented in the sample. There was no limit regarding publication date. The required minimum of H/L participants in selected studies was determined based on a standard of representation in the United States general population, which is around 18.5%. In the second stage of the review, studies were screened excluding all studies that did not meet the criteria.

Thirteen, 37, and 17 studies were identified by APA PsychInfo, EMBASE, and PubMed, respectively. After removing 19 duplicate records, 48 reports were then assessed for eligibility. Thirty-five of those reports were missing apathy and cognition associations, were under-reported in information such as conference abstracts, or were missing adequate representation of H/L participants. This resulted in a total of 13 papers included in this review. Of the eleven cross-sectional studies, nine demonstrated significant differences or associations between apathy and cognitive status, one demonstrated a descriptive difference between apathy and cognitive status (i.e., no hypothesis test conducted), while one demonstrated null effects. All effects suggested that as apathy increased, cognitive impairment increased. These cross-sectional studies spanned across Säo Paulo, Brazil, Los Angeles, California, West Texas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Southwestern United States. This included community and clinic samples of participants. Of the two longitudinal studies, they both demonstrated non-significant associations of apathy and cognitive status. One study in Mexico suggested a risk ratio over 1 where apathy was non-significantly associated with dementia risk, while the other study in Texas, United States had hazard ratios below 1 where apathy was non-significantly associated with mild cognitive impairment risk.

The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) apathy subscale was the most used measure for apathy in this review (81.8% of included studies). However, a recent systematic review on apathy measurement in older adults and people with dementia specifically stated that the apathy dimension commonly used in the NPI should not be employed outside of screening for apathy. This suggests potential bias and poor evidence in the current literature consisting of apathy research with H/Ls. Longitudinal studies evaluating the utility of examining apathy in relation to cognitive impairment with diverse ethnoracial groups, in addition to Hispanic/Latin Americans, are warranted. Assessing construct equivalence of apathy across demographic characteristics such as language, education, and informant characteristics should be conducted to elucidate potential biases in measurement.