Trends in Physical and Cognitive Performance Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Switzerland

Abstract

Background With population aging, a key question is whether new cohorts of older people are in better health than previous ones. This study aimed to compare the physical and cognitive performance of community-dwelling older adults assessed at similar age in 2005, 2010, and 2015. Methods This repeated cross-sectional analysis used data from the Lausanne cohort 65+, a three random sample population-based study. Performance of participants aged 66–71 years in 2005 (N = 1,309), 2010 (N = 1,253), and 2015 (N = 1,328) was compared using a battery of six physical and four cognitive tests. Analyses included tests for trend across samples and multivariable linear regression models. Results Adjusted performance in all four timed physical tests (gait speed, Timed Up-and-Go, five times chair stand, and Moberg Picking-Up) improved across samples from 2005 to 2015, by +12.7% (95% confidence interval {CI} +10.5%; +14.9%) to +20.4% (95% CI +17.7%; +23.0%) in females, and by +10.6% (95% CI +8.7%; +12.4%) to +16.7% (95% CI +13.4%; +20.0%) in males. In contrast, grip strength and balance did not improve across samples. Adjusted cognitive performance showed no change in the Trail Making Test, but worsened significantly across samples for the Mini-Mental State Examination, verbal fluency, and the clock drawing test in both females (−1.9% [95% CI −2.7%; −1.1%] to −6.7% [95% CI −8.9%; −4.6%]) and males (−2.5% [95% CI −3.4%; −1.6%] to −8.0% [95% CI −11.1%; −4.9%]). Conclusions Over the last decade, performance of adults aged 66–71 years improved significantly in timed physical tests but worsened in most cognitive measures among later-born samples.

Slowness Predicts Mortality: A Comparative Analysis of Walking Speed and Moberg Picking-Up Tests

“…Previous analyses of Lc65þ data showed that all timed tests improved over time across cohorts of individuals born before, during, and at the end of World War II. 29 This appears in current analyses showing higher mean times in our study sample for the longer-term analyses that included only the first Lc65þ cohort, with participants born before the war. Although the 14-year mortality analysis was limited to individuals of the first cohort, associations found in this subsample were consistent with shorter-term observations.…”

Secular Trends in Dementia Free Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Systematic Review

“…Three additional articles [11][12][13] were identified from backward citation tracing and one [14] from a conference abstract; this making a total of 17 papers. On final inspection, five studies [12,[15][16][17][18] used data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey; three [15,17,18] were retained as they contained non-overlapping results and two [12,16] [11,15,17,18]), followed by the USA (n=4 [14,[20][21][22]) and Sweden (n=3 [8,19,23] studies), with one study each from Denmark [24], France [25], Switzerland [26] and the UK [13] (Table 1). Eight studies [8,13,15,17,18,20,23,24] were nationally representative and three studies [14,25,26] were regionally representative.…”

“…On final inspection, five studies [12,[15][16][17][18] used data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey; three [15,17,18] were retained as they contained non-overlapping results and two [12,16] [11,15,17,18]), followed by the USA (n=4 [14,[20][21][22]) and Sweden (n=3 [8,19,23] studies), with one study each from Denmark [24], France [25], Switzerland [26] and the UK [13] (Table 1). Eight studies [8,13,15,17,18,20,23,24] were nationally representative and three studies [14,25,26] were regionally representative. Seven studies [8,12,14,18,[23][24][25] focused on the very-old (e.g., age ≥70 years) with the remaining studies capturing people aged ≥60 years.…”

Cohort Profile: The Lausanne cohort 65+ (Lc65+)

“… 19 However, diverging trends still arose from objective health assessments. 20 Whereas Baby Boomers achieved the highest physical performance levels (e.g. gait speed, timed up and go), they performed worse in cognitive tests (e.g.…”