Objective: Much of the literature on aging cognitive health has focused on individual determinants, rather than societal ones; in contrast, this study examined whether country-level age status predicts cognitive performance of older individuals over time. Method: Eight countries were examined using a novel combination of country-level age status data from the European Social Survey and individual-level data from the Survey on Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, between 2004 and 2013. Results: We found that more positive age status significantly predicted better performance on three cognitive measures over a 10-year period, after adjusting for relevant covariates. The generalized-linear model nested individuals within countries to account for the multilevel data. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between country-level age status and cognitive performance over time. The results suggest that a small change in the perception of old age at the population level could have a significant effect on the cognitive health of older individuals.
Objective: Much of the literature on aging cognitive health has focused on individual determinants, rather than societal ones; in contrast, this study examined whether country-level age status predicts cognitive performance of older individuals over time. Method: Eight countries were examined using a novel combination of country-level age status data from the European Social Survey and individual-level data from the Survey on Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, between 2004 and 2013. Results: We found that more positive age status significantly predicted better performance on three cognitive measures over a 10-year period, after adjusting for relevant covariates. The generalized-linear model nested individuals within countries to account for the multilevel data. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between country-level age status and cognitive performance over time. The results suggest that a small change in the perception of old age at the population level could have a significant effect on the cognitive health of older individuals.
Entities:
Keywords:
aging; cognition; cross-cultural; culture; longitudinal; social cognition; views of aging
Authors: M J Prince; F Reischies; A T Beekman; R Fuhrer; C Jonker; S L Kivela; B A Lawlor; A Lobo; H Magnusson; M Fichter; H van Oyen; M Roelands; I Skoog; C Turrina; J R Copeland Journal: Br J Psychiatry Date: 1999-04 Impact factor: 9.319
Authors: Emmeke Aarts; Matthijs Verhage; Jesse V Veenvliet; Conor V Dolan; Sophie van der Sluis Journal: Nat Neurosci Date: 2014-03-26 Impact factor: 24.884