Capability in Research on Cognition and Well-being in Ageing and Retirement

In this chapter, we outline our thoughts on capability in relation to previous and ongoing research projects conducted by the Adult Development and Ageing (ADA-Gero) Research Group located at the Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. More specifically, we relate our research on cognitive ageing and subjective well-being to the overarching capability framework implemented as a theoretical platform in the AgeCap research consortium.

Socioeconomic Determinants of Cognitive Aging: A Cross-Country Comparison Between England and China

Lower educational attainment is associated with a higher risk of dementia and a steeper cognitive decline in older adults. However, less clear is how other socioeconomic markers contribute to cognitive ageing and if these socioeconomic influences on cognitive ageing differ between England and China. We examined the relationship of education, household wealth, and urbanicity with cognitive performance and rate of change over 7-8 years follow up in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, national representative samples of England and China. We found that the rate of cognitive change appears to be socioeconomically patterned, primarily by education and area-based characteristics (urban vs rural), with a stronger impact of inequalities seen in rural China. Public health strategies for preventing cognitive decline and dementia should target socioeconomic gaps to reduce health disparities and protect those particularly disadvantaged in England and China.

Increased habitual flavonoid intake predicts attenuation of cognitive ageing in twins

Background Although the pathophysiology of cognitive decline is multifactorial, and modifiable by lifestyle, the evidence for the role of diet on cognitive function is still accumulating, particularly the potentially preventive role of constituents of plant-based foods. Methods We aimed to determine whether higher habitual intake of dietary flavonoids, key components of plant-based diets, were associated with improved cognition and medial temporal lobe volumes using three complementary approaches (longitudinal, cross-sectional and co-twin analyses). In 1126 female twins (n=224 with a 10-year follow-up of diet and cognition data) aged 18–89 years, habitual intakes of total flavonoids and seven subclasses (flavanones, anthocyanins, flavan-3-ols, flavonols, flavones, polymeric flavonoids (and proanthocyanidins separately)) were calculated using validated food frequency questionnaires. Cognition was assessed using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery test. Hippocampal volumes were measured in a subset using magnetic resonance imaging (16 monozygotic-twin pairs). Statistical models were adjusted for a range of diet and lifestyle factors. Results Higher intakes of flavanones (tertile (T)3-T1=0.45, 95%CI 0.13,0.77; p=0.01) and anthocyanins (T3-T1=0.45, 95%CI 0.08,0.81; p=0.02) were associated with improvements in age-related cognition score over 10 years. In cross-sectional analysis higher intake of flavanones (T3-T1= 0.12, 95% CI 0.02, 0.21; p=0.02) and proanthocyanidins (T3-T1= 0.13, 95% CI 0.02, 0.24; p=0.02) were associated with improved paired-associates learning. Higher intake of anthocyanins was significantly associated with improved executive function (T3-T1= −0.52, 95% CI 0.19, 0.84; p=0.001) and with faster simple reaction times (T3-T1= −18.1, 95% CI −35.4, −0.7; p=0.04). In co-twin analysis, those with higher anthocyanin (2.0%, p=0.01) and proanthocyanidin (2.0%, p=0.02) intakes at baseline had the largest left hippocampal volumes after 12 years. Conclusion Small increases in habitual intake of flavonoid-rich foods (containing anthocyanins, flavanones and proanthocyanidins; equivalent to approximately two servings of oranges and blueberries per day) over long time periods have the potential to attenuate cognitive ageing.

Two Cheers for the Cognitive Irregulars: Intelligence’s Contributions to Ageing Well and Staying Alive

Here, intelligence is taken to mean scores from psychometric tests of cognitive functions. This essay describes how cognitive tests offer assessments of brain functioning—an otherwise difficult-to-assess organ—that have proved enduringly useful in the field of health and medicine. The two “consequential world problems” (the phrase used by the inviters of this essay) addressed in this article are (i) the ageing of modern societies (and the resulting increase in the numbers of people with ageing-related cognitive decrements and dementias) and (ii) health inequalities, including mortality. Cognitive tests have an ubiquitous place in both of these topics, i.e., the important fields of cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology, respectively. The cognitive tests that have sprouted in these fields are often brief and not mainstream, large psychometric test batteries; I refer to them as ‘irregulars’. These two problems are not separate, because results found with mental/cognitive/intelligence tests have produced a growing understanding that intelligence and health have a reciprocal, life-long relationship. Intelligence tests contribute to the applied research that is trying to help people to stay sharp, stay healthy, and stay alive.

A Wrinkle in Measuring Time Use for Cognitive Health: How should We Measure Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep?

One new case of dementia is detected every 4 seconds and no effective drug therapy exists. Effective behavioural strategies to promote healthy cognitive ageing are thus essential. Three behaviours related to cognitive health which we all engage in daily are physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep. These time-use activity behaviours are linked to cognitive health in a complex and dynamic relationship not yet fully elucidated. Understanding how each of these behaviours is related to each other and cognitive health will help determine the most practical and effective lifestyle strategies for promoting healthy cognitive ageing. In this review, we discuss methods and analytical approaches to best investigate how these time-use activity behaviours are related to cognitive health. We highlight four key recommendations for examining these relationships such that researchers should include measures which (1) are psychometrically appropriate; (2) can specifically answer the research question; (3) include objective and subjective estimates of the behaviour and (4) choose an analytical method for modelling the relationships of time-use activity behaviours with cognitive health which is appropriate for their research question.

Genes versus lifestyles: Exploring beliefs about the determinants of cognitive ageing

Objectives: Genetic and lifestyle factors contribute to cognitive ageing. This study explored people’s beliefs about determinants of cognitive ageing and whether those beliefs were associated with engagement in potentially beneficial behaviours.Methods: Data were collected through a UK-wide survey of people aged 40 and over. Responses from 3,130 individuals (94.0% of the survey sample) were analysed using chi-square tests of independence, principal component analysis and ANCOVAs.Results: Most respondents (62.2%) believed genes and lifestyle contribute equally to age-related changes in cognitive skills. Respondents who believed genetic factors were more influential were less likely to expect cognitive skills might be improved or maintained with age, less sure what behaviours might be associated with brain health, and less likely to engage in behaviours comprising mental challenge/novelty supported as beneficial for brain health.Conclusion: Our results indicate a need for clearer messaging highlighting the role of lifestyle factors for brain health.

Childhood reading problems and cognitive ageing across mid to later life

BackgroundLittle research has investigated long-term associations of childhood reading with cognitive ageing. The aim of this study was to test longitudinal associations between childhood reading problems and cognitive function from mid-adulthood (age 43) to early old age (age 69), and whether associations were mediated by education.MethodsData were from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, a prospective population-based birth cohort. Reading problems were measured at age 11 using a reading test. Verbal memory and processing speed were measured at ages 43, 53, 60–64 and 69 and Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination (ACE) was administered at age 69. Linear mixed models and path analyses were used to test: (1) associations between reading problems and verbal memory and processing speed trajectories; (2) associations between reading problems and ACE-III scores; (3) whether associations were mediated by education.ResultsReading problems were associated with poorer verbal memory at intercept but not rate of decline (N=1726), and were not associated with processing speed intercept or decline (N=1730). There were higher rates of scores below ACE-III clinical thresholds (<82 and <88) in people with reading problems compared with those without. Reading problems were associated with poorer total ACE-III scores and all domain scores at age 69 (N=1699). Associations were partly mediated by education.ConclusionReading problems in childhood were associated with poorer cognitive function in early old age, and associations were partly mediated by education.