The relation of education, occupation, and cognitive activity to cognitive status in old age: the role of physical frailty

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1469-1474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Élvio R. Gouveia ◽  
Bruna R. Gouveia ◽  
Duarte L. Freitas ◽  
Jefferson Jurema ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Grip Strength ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
Physical Frailty

ABSTRACTBackground:It remains unclear so far whether the role of cognitive reserve may differ between physically frail compared to less frail individuals. Therefore, the present study set out to investigate the relation of key markers of cognitive reserve to cognitive status in old age and its interplay with physical frailty in a large sample of older adults.Methods:We assessed Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in 701 older adults. We measured grip strength as indicator of physical frailty and interviewed individuals on their education, past occupation, and cognitive leisure activity.Results:Greater grip strength, longer education, higher cognitive level of job, and greater engaging in cognitive leisure activity were significantly related to higher MMSE scores. Moderation analyses showed that the relations of education, cognitive level of job, and cognitive leisure activity to MMSE scores were significantly larger in individuals with lower, compared to those with greater grip strength.Conclusions:Cognitive status in old age may more strongly depend on cognitive reserve accumulated during the life course in physically frail (compared to less frail) older adults. These findings may be explained by cross-domain compensation effects in vulnerable individuals.

Cognitive Reserve and Social Capital Accrued in Early and Midlife Moderate the Relation of Psychological Stress to Cognitive Performance in Old Age

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 190-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Michel Oris ◽  
Julia Sauter ◽  
Ulrike Rimmele ◽  
Matthias Kliegel
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
Verbal Abilities

Aims: The present study set out to investigate the relation of psychological stress to cognitive performance and its interplay with key life course markers of cognitive reserve and social capital in a large sample of older adults. Methods: We assessed cognitive performance (verbal abilities and processing speed) and psychological stress in 2,812 older adults. The Participants reported information on education, occupation, leisure activities, family, and close friends. Results: Greater psychological stress was significantly related to lower performance in verbal abilities and processing speed. Moderation analyses suggested that the relations of psychological stress to cognitive performance were reduced in individuals with higher education, a higher cognitive level of the first profession practiced after education, a larger number of midlife leisure activities, a larger number of significant family members, and a larger number of close friends. Conclusion: Cognitive reserve and social capital accrued in early and midlife may reduce the detrimental influences of psychological stress on cognitive functioning in old age.

The Relation of Obesity to Performance in Verbal Abilities, Processing Speed, and Cognitive Flexibility in Old Age: The Role of Cognitive Reserve

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Ute Mons ◽  
Laura Perna ◽  
Michel Oris ◽  
Delphine Fagot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Verbal Abilities ◽  
Low Education ◽  
The Life Course

Aims: The present study set out to investigate the relation of obesity to performance in verbal abilities, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility and its interplay with key correlates of cognitive reserve in a large sample of older adults. Methods: A total of 2,812 older adults served as a sample for the present study. Psychometric tests on verbal abilities, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility were administered. In addition, individuals were interviewed on their weight and height (to calculate body mass index; BMI), educational attainment, occupation, and engaging in different activities throughout adulthood. Results: Obesity (BMI ≥30) was significantly associated with a lower performance in verbal abilities, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility. Moderation analyses showed that obesity was related to lower processing speed and cognitive flexibility only in individuals with low engagement in activities and low education. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that obesity was not related to any of the three investigated cognitive performance measures when cognitive reserve in early and midlife was taken into account. Conclusion: Present data suggest that cognitive reserve accumulated during the life course may reduce the detrimental influences of obesity on cognitive functioning in old age.

Interpreting cognitive decline in the face of cognitive reserve

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Bialystok ◽  
John A. E. Anderson ◽  
John G. Grundy
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
The Face

Evaluation of the cognitive level of older adults, including decisions about meeting clinical thresholds for dementia, is typically based on behavioral levels of performance. However, individuals with high cognitive reserve will outperform the levels typically associated with their brain structure, providing inaccurate assessments of their status. We define cognitive reserve as the relation between brain integrity and cognitive level, and use the case of bilingualism as a source of cognitive reserve to illustrate how information from only one can distort the interpretation of the individual’s cognitive status.

The Relation of Hypertension to Performance in Immediate and Delayed Cued Recall and Working Memory in Old Age: The Role of Cognitive Reserve

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1171-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Élvio R. Gouveia ◽  
Bruna R. Gouveia ◽  
Duarte L. Freitas ◽  
Jefferson Jurema ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Cognitive Measures ◽  
The Life Course

Objective: We investigated the relation of hypertension to cognitive performance and its interplay with key markers of cognitive reserve in a large sample of older adults. Method: We assessed tests of immediate and delayed cued recall and working memory in 701 older adults. We measured systolic blood pressure and interviewed individuals on their education, past occupation, and cognitive leisure activity. Results: Hypertension (≥140 mmHg) was related to lower performance in all three cognitive measures. Moderation analyses suggested that these relations were reduced in individuals with greater engaging in cognitive leisure activity. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that hypertension was not related to any of the three investigated cognitive performance measures when education, cognitive level of job, and cognitive leisure activity were simultaneously taken into account. Discussion: The detrimental influences of hypertension on cognitive functioning in old age may be reduced in individuals with greater cognitive reserve accumulated during the life course.

The association of timing of retirement with cognitive performance in old age: the role of leisure activities after retirement

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1659-1669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Catherine Grotz ◽  
Stéphane Adam ◽  
Michel Oris ◽  
Delphine Fagot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Trail Making Test ◽  
Test Part ◽  
Trail Making

ABSTRACTBackground:The role of timing of retirement on cognitive functioning in old age is inconclusive so far. Therefore, the present study set out to investigate the association of timing of retirement with cognitive performance and its interplay with key correlates of cognitive reserve in a large sample of older adults.Methods:Two thousand two hundred and sixty three older adults served as sample for the present study. Different psychometric tests (Trail Making Test part A (TMT A), Trail Making Test part B (TMT B), Mill Hill) were administered. In addition, individuals were interviewed on their retirement, occupation, educational attainment, and regarding 18 leisure activities that have been carried out after retirement.Results:Earlier retirement (compared to retirement at legal age) was significantly associated with better performance in the TMT A, the TMT B, and the Mill Hill vocabulary test. Moderation analyses showed that in individuals with a moderate number of leisure activities in old age, earlier retirement was related to better cognitive performance, but not in those with a relatively large number of leisure activities. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that entering leisure activities as additional predictor significantly increased explained variance in the cognitive measures over and above all other investigated markers of cognitive reserve (i.e. occupation and education).Conclusions:Present data further corroborate the view that leisure activities even in old age may lead to further enrichment effects and thereby may be related to better cognitive functioning. The role of engaging in activities in the context of major life events such as retirement is discussed.

scholarly journals Likelihood of Participation in Home-Based Cognitive Assessment: The Role of Subjective Cognitive Decline and Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 293-294
Author(s):  
Moriah Splonskowski ◽  
Holly Cooke ◽  
Claudia Jacova
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Subjective Cognitive Decline ◽  
Cognitive State ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Increased Risk

Abstract Home-based cognitive assessment (HBCA) services are emerging as a convenient alternative to in-clinic cognitive assessment and may aid in mitigating barriers to detecting cognitive impairment (CI). It is unknown which older adults would be likely to participate in HBCA. Here we investigated the role of age and Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD). SCD has demonstrated an increased risk for progression to CI/dementia. A nation-wide community-dwelling sample of 494 adults age 50+ were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete an online survey assessing perceptions around HBCA and SCD. Our sample was 91.9% White and 66.8% female. It consisted of 174 respondents aged 50-60, 265 aged 61- 70, and 55 aged 71-79. Age groups were comparable with respect to their acceptance of cognitive assessment (Range 4-20, higher score=higher acceptance, 7.9±3.3, 8.15±3.2, 8.05±3.43) and SCD-Q total (43.1±5.8, 43.2±5.7, 43.3±5.7). Correlation analysis revealed a relationship between SCD-QSCD total and perceived likelihood of participation in HBCA for those ages 61-70 (r(263) = .222 p = .000), but not for ages 50-60 or 71-79 (r(172) = .102 p = .152; r(53) = -.102 p = .458). Our findings suggest that SCD influences the likelihood of participation in HBCA for older adults’ transitioning to old age (61-70). Findings show that for adults transitioning into old age (61-70), perceived cognitive state influences their likelihood of participation in HBCA. Importantly, concerns about CI/dementia may generate more favorable perceptions of HBCA for this group.

scholarly journals Sleep Onset/Maintenance Difficulties and Cognitive Function in Nondemented Older Adults: The Role of Cognitive Reserve

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (03) ◽  
pp. 461-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly E. Zimmerman ◽  
Marcelo E. Bigal ◽  
Mindy J. Katz ◽  
Adam M. Brickman ◽  
Richard B. Lipton
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Sleep Onset

scholarly journals Sounds of Healthy Aging: Assessing Everyday Cognitive Activity From Real-Life Audio Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 622-622
Author(s):  
Burcu Demiray ◽  
Minxia Luo ◽  
Matthew Grilli
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
World Health ◽  
Recording Device

Abstract The healthy aging model of the World Health Organization (2015) highlights the value of assessing and monitoring everyday activities in understanding health in old age. This symposium includes four studies that used the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), a portable recording device that periodically collects sound snippets in everyday life, to assess various real-life cognitive activities in the context of healthy aging. The four studies collected over 100,000 sound snippets (30-seconds long) over a few days from young and older adults in the US and Switzerland. Participants’ speech in the sound snippets were transcribed and coded for different cognitive activity information. Specifically, Haas and Kliegel have investigated the “prospective memory paradox” by examining the commonality and differences in utterances about retrospective and prospective memory failure in young and older adults’ everyday conversations. Demiray and colleagues investigated the relation between autobiographical memory functions and conversation types in young and older adults in relation to well-being. Luo and colleagues have identified the compensatory function of real-world contexts in cognitive aging: Their study showed that older adults benefited from talking with their spouse in producing complex grammatical structures. Finally, Polsinelli and colleagues found robust associations between language markers (e.g., prepositions, more numbers) and executive functions, highlighting the potential use of spontaneous speech in predicting cognitive status in healthy older adults. Finally, Prof. Matthew Grilli will serve as a discussant and provide an integrative discussion of the papers, informed by his extensive work on clinical and cognitive neuroscience of memory in relation to real-life contexts.

scholarly journals The relation of close friends to cognitive performance in old age: the mediating role of leisure activities

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1753-1758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Michel Oris ◽  
Marie Baeriswyl ◽  
Matthias Kliegel
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Activity Engagement ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Trail Making ◽  
The One

ABSTRACTBackground:From a conceptual point of view, close friends are an important resource for promoting activity engagement in old age. Leisure activity engagement in turn is a key predictor of cognitive performance. Empirically, it remains unclear so far whether leisure activity engagement mediates between having close friends on the one hand and cognitive performance on the other, which we investigated in a large sample of older adults.Methods:We assessed cognitive performance (Mill Hill vocabulary scale and Trail Making Test (TMT) parts A and B) in 2,812 older adults. Participants reported information on leisure activity engagement and close friends.Results:A larger number of leisure activities and a larger number of close friends were significantly related to better cognitive performance in the Mill Hill vocabulary scale and TMT parts A and B. A larger number of close friends were significantly related to a larger number of leisure activities. The number of leisure activities mediated more than half of the relation of the number of close friends to performance in all three cognitive measures.Conclusions:Having close friends may be helpful to stimulate and promote activity participation in old age. By enhancing individuals’ cognitive reserve, this may finally preserve their cognitive performance level in old age.

Challenging the relationship of grip strength with cognitive status in older adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hooyman ◽  
Michael Malek‐Ahmadi ◽  
Elizabeth B. Fauth ◽  
Sydney Y. Schaefer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Grip Strength ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship
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