Longitudinal application of cognitive function measures in a defined population of community-dwelling elders

Cognitive reserve: Implications for diagnosis and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease

“…There is also evidence for a role of education in age-related cognitive decline, with several studies of normal aging reporting slower cognitive and functional decline in individuals with higher educational attainment [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. These studies suggest that the same education-related factors that delay the onset of dementia also allow individuals to cope more effectively with brain changes encountered in normal aging.…”

No protective effects of education during normal cognitive aging: Results from the 6-year follow-up of the Maastricht Aging Study.

“…They found that in some studies, effects of education were observed only in subgroups (Butler et al, 1996;Colsher & Wallace, 1991;Farmer et al, 1995;Schmand, Smit, Geerlings, & Lindeboom, 1997), on only certain outcome measures (Arbuckle, Maag, Pushkar, & Chaikelson, 1998;Christensen et al, 1997;Schaie, 1989), or not at all (Carmelli, Swan, Larue, & Eslinger, 1997;Hultsch, Hertzog, Small, & Dixon, 1999). The researchers who did observe protective effects in subgroups reported effects within a restricted age range (Butler et al, 1996;Schmand et al, 1997), in women (Colsher & Wallace, 1991), or in participants with a certain level of cognitive function-ing (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] score Ͼ 23; Farmer et al, 1995;Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975). However, the observed patterns in those studies have not been replicated in other studies.…”

The fate of cognition in very old age: Six-year longitudinal findings in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE).

“…Specifically, its goal is to examine six themes in cognitive aging research: (a) the magnitude of mortality-associated and experimental selectivity effects and their relation to age, (b) the degree of convergence between crosssectional and longitudinal age gradients, (c) the ability-specific differences in the magnitude of age-based changes in the longitudinal sample, (d) the acceleration of decline in old-old age, (e) the relation of gender and life-history variables to level and longitudinal change in intellectual functioning, and (f) the differential association of the fluid mechanics and crystallized pragmatics of intelligence with measures of cultural versus biological indicators. In addition to the description of age changes in intellectual functioning in very old age, we also illustrate methodological issues associated with both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies involving old and very old individuals.The present study is closely related to other in-depth longitudinal investigations of intelligence in old and very old age, such as the Australian Longitudinal Study (Anstey, Luszcz, Giles, & Andrews, 2001;Anstey, Luszcz, & Sanchez, 2001), the Seattle Longitudinal Study (Schaie, 1996), the Victoria Longitudinal Study (Hultsch, Hertzog, Dixon, & Small, 1998), and the Kungsholmen project on a population 75 years and over (Hill, Wahlin, Winblad, & Bäckman, 1995; for other longitudinal studies with the focus on old age, see also Colsher & Wallace, 1991;Giambra, Arenberg, Zonderman, Kawas, & Costa, 1995;Schaie & Hofer, 2001;Sliwinski & Buschke, 1999;Zelinski & Burnight, 1997). At the same time, it differs from most of these earlier investigations by a combination of three features: (a) the effect-sized-based quantification of selection effects, (b) the decomposition of these effects into mortality-associated and study components (experimental attrition), and (c) the statistical comparisons of cross-sectional and full-information longitudinal age gradients using latent growth models (LGM).…”

“…The present study is closely related to other in-depth longitudinal investigations of intelligence in old and very old age, such as the Australian Longitudinal Study (Anstey, Luszcz, Giles, & Andrews, 2001;Anstey, Luszcz, & Sanchez, 2001), the Seattle Longitudinal Study (Schaie, 1996), the Victoria Longitudinal Study (Hultsch, Hertzog, Dixon, & Small, 1998), and the Kungsholmen project on a population 75 years and over (Hill, Wahlin, Winblad, & Bäckman, 1995; for other longitudinal studies with the focus on old age, see also Colsher & Wallace, 1991;Giambra, Arenberg, Zonderman, Kawas, & Costa, 1995;Schaie & Hofer, 2001;Sliwinski & Buschke, 1999;Zelinski & Burnight, 1997). At the same time, it differs from most of these earlier investigations by a combination of three features: (a) the effect-sized-based quantification of selection effects, (b) the decomposition of these effects into mortality-associated and study components (experimental attrition), and (c) the statistical comparisons of cross-sectional and full-information longitudinal age gradients using latent growth models (LGM).…”