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. 2017 Jan;72(1):25-37.
doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbw124. Epub 2016 Oct 7.

Lifecourse Activity Participation From Early, Mid, and Later Adulthood as Determinants of Cognitive Aging: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921

Alan J Gow  1   2 , Alison Pattie  3 , Ian J Deary  2   3
Affiliations

Lifecourse Activity Participation From Early, Mid, and Later Adulthood as Determinants of Cognitive Aging: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921

Alan J Gow et al. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2017 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: To examine potential sensitive periods for activity participation across adulthood to reduce cognitive decline and to determine whether associations persist after accounting for the lifetime stability of cognitive ability.

Method: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 is a longitudinal study of cognitive aging. Participants were born in 1921 and most completed a mental ability test at the age of 11 years. Cognitive assessments were completed at mean ages 79 (N = 550), 83 (N = 321), 87 (N = 235), and 90 years (N = 129). Participants provided retrospective details of their activity participation for young (20-35 years), mid (40-55 years), and later adulthood (60-75 years), and contemporaneously at age 79.

Results: Associations between activity and the level of, and change in, cognitive ability in old age were examined with latent growth curve models. Accounting for demographics and childhood cognitive ability, engagement in leisure activities in midlife was positively associated with cognitive ability level (path coefficient = .32), whereas higher physical activity in later adulthood was associated with less cognitive decline (.27).

Discussion: The findings support a lifecourse approach in identifying determinants of cognitive aging; leisure and physical activity during different periods of adulthood may enhance cognitive abilities or reduce decline.

Keywords: Differential preservation; Leisure activity; Longitudinal; Physical activity; Preserved differentiation; Retrospective.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Latent growth curve model of the level of, and change in, general cognitive ability over four waves of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. In the latent growth curve model, manifest (measured) variables are represented by rectangles and latent traits by circles. Latent general cognitive ability factors (G) were produced at each occasion from the three cognitive tests completed (VF = Verbal Fluency, LM = Logical Memory, and RSPM = Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices). Correlations between the activity factors are given in Supplementary Table 2 and between the cognitive ability variables in Supplementary Table 4. The principal outcome variables in the model are intercept (the level of general cognitive ability) and slope (the change in general cognitive ability across time). In a growth curve model with more than two occasions, the intercept is a composite representing overall level; here, the intercept term therefore represents the composite level of cognitive ability across ages 79 (Wave 1) to 90 (Wave 4). The measured variables have fixed contributions to the intercept; the fixed contributions to slope (4, 8, and 11) represent the number of years since the initial testing occasion, age 79 in this model. Figures with decimal points are the standardized estimates generated by the model, given before/after inclusion of the covariates. Only significant paths are shown (full results in Table 2), except the path from physical activity 60–75 to slope which was not significant before inclusion of the covariates.
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