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. 2016 Apr 12;86(15):1386-1392.
doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000002569. Epub 2016 Mar 16.

Occupational cognitive requirements and late-life cognitive aging

Lindsay R Pool  1 , Jennifer Weuve  2 , Robert S Wilson  2 , Ute Bültmann  2 , Denis A Evans  2 , Carlos F Mendes de Leon  2
Affiliations

Occupational cognitive requirements and late-life cognitive aging

Lindsay R Pool et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether occupational cognitive requirements, as a marker of adulthood cognitive activity, are associated with late-life cognition and cognitive decline.

Methods: Main lifetime occupation information for 7,637 participants aged >65 years of the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) was linked with standardized data on worker attributes and job characteristics from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). Ratings of cognitive processes required in 10 work-related tasks were used to create a summary measure of occupational cognitive requirements (possible range 0-7). Multivariable-adjusted linear mixed models were used to estimate the association of occupational cognitive requirements score (OCRS) with cognitive function and rate of cognitive decline.

Results: Higher OCRS corresponded to significantly better late-life cognitive performance at baseline in 1993 (p < 0.001) and to slower decline in global cognitive function over time (p = 0.004). Within a genotyped subsample (n = 4,104), the associations of OCRS with rate of cognitive decline did not differ significantly by APOE ε4 carriership (p = 0.11).

Conclusions: Findings suggest that occupational cognitive requirements are associated with better cognition and a slower rate of cognitive decline in older age. Adulthood cognitive activity may contribute to cognitive reserve in late life.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Global cognitive function score over time by levels of occupational cognitive requirements
The predicted values are derived from linear mixed models adjusted for race, sex, income decile, education, education-squared, age, age-squared, education × time, income × time, and age × time.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Global cognition score over time by APOE ε4 allele and levels of occupational cognitive requirements
(A) APOE ε4+: Participants with an APOE ε4 allele. (B) APOE ε4−: Participants without an APOE ε4 allele. The predicted values are derived from linear mixed models adjusted for race, sex, income decile, education, education-squared, age, age-squared, education × time, income × time, and age × time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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