Cognitive function, cognitive style and life satisfaction in a 68-year-old male population.

A representative sample of 68-year-old men living in the city of Malmö, Sweden, was examined by means of psychological tests and questionnaires regarding cognitive capacity, cognitive style as an expression of personality, and life satisfaction. Reference values for these parameters are presented, and a continuous cohort increase of verbal ability could be identified in this age group. That the prevalence of cognitive reduction was found to be surprisingly high is tentatively interpreted as reflecting an underdiagnosis of these symptoms as concomitant to other diseases in the general population. Earlier results supporting the concept of terminal decline could not be replicated. The reason for this might be that the present population was somewhat younger than those earlier investigated. Contrary to expectation, life satisfaction did not correlate to either cognitive reduction or cognitive style. It had, however, a positive correlation to measures of fluid intelligence.