Cognitive Functioning in Healthy Older Adults Aged 64–81: A Cohort Study into the Effects of Age, Sex, and Education

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine a possible differential effect of age, education, and sex on cognitive speed, verbal memory, executive functioning, and verbal fluency in healthy older adults. A group of 578 healthy participants in the age range of 64-81 was recruited from a large population study of healthy adults (Maastricht Aging Study). Even in healthy individuals in this restricted age range, there is a clear, age-related decrease in performance on executive functioning, verbal fluency, verbal memory, and cognitive speed tasks. The capacity to inhibit information is affected most. Education had a substantial effect on cognitive functioning: participants with a middle or high level of education performed better on cognitive tests than did participants with a low level of education. Women performed better than men on verbal memory tasks. Therefore, education and sex must be taken into account when examining an older individual's cognitive performance.

Cognitive functioning and associated factors in older adults in South Africa

“…in English elderly, 33 Chinese elderly, 34 American older adults 35 and Mexican older adults. 36 Consistent with other studies, [3][4][5]12,13,17,18 we found that higher overall cognitive functioning was positively associated with: younger age; white, Indian/Asian and coloured ethnicity; being married; a higher level of education; having greater wealth; engaging in moderate or high physical activity; a greater QoL; and a better subjective health status. The black population group had a lower overall cognitive functioning than the other population groups, possibly attributed to measurement or structural differences, or heterogeneity in the effect of background variables.…”

“…37 Studies have indicated that illiterates underperform in neuropsychological tasks that require working memory and immediate verbal attention, which are processes required by the digit span task. 36 Unlike other studies, 3,[6][7][8][9][10]15,16,20 our study did not reveal an association between cognitive functioning and gender, illness (depression, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, heart failure, diabetes or insomnia), social coherence (including attendance of religious gatherings) 4,14 and healthy behaviour (not smoking and moderate alcohol use).…”

“…In various cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, better cognitive performance in older adults has been found to be associated with: (i) socioeconomic status (younger age, female or male gender, higher education, greater wealth, population group); [3][4][5] (ii) illness conditions and health status (fewer depressive symptoms, no hypertension, no cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure, no type 2 diabetes, no insomnia, no malnourishment, better quality of life (QoL) and life satisfaction); 6-13 (iii) social coherence and contact (attendance at religious gatherings); 4,14 and (iv) healthy behaviour (physical activity, no smoking and moderate alcohol use). [15][16][17][18][19][20] We aimed to investigate cognitive functioning and associated factors in a national probability sample of older South Africans who participated in the Study of Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) in 2008.…”

Predictors of Successful Learning in Multilingual Older Adults Acquiring a Majority Language

“…If replicated and identified across a longer time window, a link between cognitive performance and continued L2 performance may provide valuable information regarding the continued support and practice resources older adult language learners may need beyond traditional multi-week language courses. While orientation/digit span composite scores capture cognitive skills that are compelling predictors of language success, other experiential factors have been shown to guide executive function in older adults, most notably educational attainment (e.g., Bosma et al, 2003;Van Hooren et al, 2007). Similarly, aspects of linguistic performance such as verbal fluency have been linked to educational attainment (Van Hooren et al, 2007).…”

“…While orientation/digit span composite scores capture cognitive skills that are compelling predictors of language success, other experiential factors have been shown to guide executive function in older adults, most notably educational attainment (e.g., Bosma et al, 2003;Van Hooren et al, 2007). Similarly, aspects of linguistic performance such as verbal fluency have been linked to educational attainment (Van Hooren et al, 2007). Consistently, orientation/digit span performance in our participants correlated with years of formal education, r (52) = 0.56, p < 0.001, and English verbal fluency also correlated with years of education, r (51) = 0.36, p = 0.01.…”