Better Cognition in New Birth Cohorts of 70 Year Olds, But Greater Decline Thereafter

Valgeir Thorvaldsson, Peter Karlsson, Johan Skoog, Ingmar Skoog and Boo Johansson

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2017, vol. 72, issue 1, 16-24

Abstract: Objectives:To evaluate birth cohort differences in level of cognition and rate of change in old age.Methods:Data were drawn from three population-based Swedish samples including age-homogenous cohorts born 1901/02, 1906/07, and 1930, and measured on the same cognitive tests at ages 70, 75, and 79 as part of the Gerontological and Geriatric Populations Studies in Gothenburg (H70). We fitted growth curve models to the data using a Bayesian framework and derived estimates and inferences from the marginal posterior distributions.Results:We found moderate to large birth cohort effects in level of performance on all cognitive outcomes. Later born cohorts, however, showed steeper linear rate of decline on reasoning, spatial ability, and perceptual- and motor-speed, but not on picture recognition memory and verbal ability.Discussion:These findings provide strong evidence for substantial birth cohort effects in cognition in older ages and emphasize the importance of life long environmental factors in shaping cognitive aging trajectories. Inferences from cognitive testing, and standardization of test scores, in elderly populations must take into account the substantial birth cohort differences.

Keywords: Aging; Cohort differences; Cohort effects; Cognition; Cognitive change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw125 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:72:y:2017:i:1:p:16-24.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().