Five views of a secret: does cognition change during middle adulthood?
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Zimprich D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5547356 | biostudies-other | 2010 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:PurposeCognitive development during adolescence affects health long term. We investigated whether level of and change in language-based cognition during adolescence are associated with cognitive performance in midlife.MethodsParticipants were enrolled in the Child Health and Development Study and followed during midlife (47-52 years). Adolescent cognition was measured with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at ages 9-11 years (PPVT-9) and 15-17 years (PPVT-15). We examined PPVT-9, as well as a PPVT change score (derived using the standardized regression-based method) in relation to midlife cognition measures of Wechsler Test of Adult Reading, Verbal Fluency, and Digit Symbol tests. Linear regression models were adjusted for childhood socioeconomic status, age, sex, race, and midlife marital status, education, and occupational score.ResultsIn 357 participants (52.1% female, 25.6% African American), both PPVT-9 (β [95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.26 [0.18, 0.34]) and PPVT change score (β [95% CI] = 2.03 [1.27, 2.80]) were associated with Wechsler Test of Adult Reading at midlife. PPVT-9 was associated with midlife Verbal Fluency (β [95% CI] = 0.18 [0.10, 0.25]), whereas PPVT change score was not (β [95% CI] = -0.01 [-0.68, 0.67]). Neither PPVT-9 nor PPVT change score was associated with midlife Digit Symbol.ConclusionsBoth level of and change in language-based cognition during adolescence were associated with midlife vocabulary and language function, even after controlling for midlife occupation and education.
| S-EPMC6812681 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Racial disparities in cognitive performance exist across the life course, but it is not known whether mediators of disparities differ by age. Understanding sources of cognitive disparities at different ages can inform policies and interventions. Data were obtained for non-Hispanic Black and White respondents to The National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States from 3 age groups: 28-44 (N = 1210; 20% Black); 45-64 (N = 2693; 15% Black); and 65-85 (N = 1298; 11% Black). Moderated mediation models characterized direct and indirect effects of race on episodic memory and executive function composite scores through economic, health, and psychosocial variables as a function of age group. Education, income, chronic health conditions, and external locus of control mediated cognitive disparities across the life course, although income was a stronger mediator at younger ages. Perceived discrimination was a weaker mediator among young adults due to an absence of racial differences in perceived discrimination in that group. Despite multiple indirect effects, there were still significant unexplained effects of race on cognition that were not moderated by age group. Interventional work is needed to determine whether increasing educational attainment and income, and reducing chronic health conditions and perceived constraints among Blacks, reduce cognitive disparities. Targeting income inequality and discrimination (or buffering the impact of those variables) may be differently effective at reducing cognitive disparities at different stages of the adult life course. (PsycINFO Database Record
| S-EPMC5369602 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Climate change education is both important and challenging. Prior research suggests that many secondary school science teachers in the United States were conveying "mixed messages" to students that legitimized scientifically unwarranted explanations of recent global warming. In this paper, we focus on US climate education at the middle school level and assess whether teacher attention to recent global warming, and whether the messages conveyed to students, changed between 2014 and 2019. Pooling data from two nationally representative probability surveys of middle school science teachers, we show significant advances on several key criteria, but the prevalence of mixed messages remained high. Exploratory analysis suggests that improvements were spurred partly by the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards by many states and by partly by shifts in the personal views of science educators.
| S-EPMC11360408 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Understanding the associations between brain biomarkers (BMs) and cognition across age is of paramount importance. Five hundred and sixty-two participants (19-80 years old, 16 mean years of education) were studied. Data from structural T1, diffusion tensor imaging, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans combined with a neuropsychological evaluation were used. More specifically, the measures of cortical, entorhinal, and parahippocampal thickness, hippocampal and striatal volume, default-mode network and fronto-parietal control network, fractional anisotropy (FA), and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) were assessed. z-Scores for three cognitive domains measuring episodic memory, executive function, and speed of processing were computed. Multiple linear regressions and interaction effects between each of the BMs and age on cognition were examined. Adjustments were made for age, sex, education, intracranial volume, and then, further, for general cognition and motion. BMs were significantly associated with cognition. Across the adult lifespan, slow speed was associated with low striatal volume, low FA, and high WMH burden. Poor executive function was associated with low FA, while poor memory was associated with high WMH burden. After adjustments, results were significant for the associations: speed-FA and WMH, memory-entorhinal thickness. There was also a significant interaction between hippocampal volume and age in memory. In age-stratified analyses, the most significant associations for the young group occurred between FA and executive function, WMH, and memory, while for the old group, between entorhinal thickness and speed, and WMH and speed, executive function. Unique sets of BMs can explain variation in specific cognitive domains across adulthood. Such results provide essential information about the neurobiology of aging.
| S-EPMC6689657 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Importance:In the United States, black individuals are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared with white individuals, and these disparities are particularly pronounced in young and middle age. Prior studies have identified differences in traditional risk factors that may be associated with racial disparities in diabetes incidence but have not simultaneously adjusted for risk factors measured across multiple domains (eg, the individual and the environment) and updated over time. Objective:To determine the relative associations of modifiable biological, neighborhood, psychosocial, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors in young adulthood with the observed racial disparity in diabetes incidence between middle-aged black and white individuals. Design, Setting, and Participants:Black and white men and women from the observational Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, aged 18 to 30 years, without diabetes at baseline (1985-1986; N?=?4251) were observed through 2015-2016. Sex-stratified multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards modeling, with adjustment for time-updated covariates, was used to estimate risk for incident diabetes. Percent reduction in the ? coefficient (the logarithm used to calculate the hazard ratio [HR]) was calculated to compare black to white participants. Exposures:Self-identified race and factors including biological (eg, fasting glucose, body mass index), neighborhood (racial segregation and tract-level poverty), psychosocial (depressive symptoms), socioeconomic (eg, personal and parental educational attainment, current employment), and behavioral (eg, regular alcohol consumption, smoking) domains. Main Outcomes and Measures:Incident type 2 diabetes mellitus. Results:The mean (SD) age at baseline was 25 (3.6) years, 49% (n?=?2066) of the sample was black, and 54% (n?=?2304) were women. Over a mean follow-up of 24.5 years, 504 cases of incident diabetes were identified. Using sex-stratified multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models, black women and men were more likely to develop diabetes than white men and women (black women: HR, 2.86 [95% CI, 2.19-3.72] and risk difference [RD], 89 cases/1000 people [95% CI, 61-117]; black men: HR, 1.67 [95% CI, 1.28-2.17] and RD, 47 cases/1000 people [95% CI, 15-78]) after adjustment for age and center. Biological factors were most strongly associated with the disparity in diabetes risk between black and white individuals for women (percent reduction in ?, 112%) and men (percent reduction in ?, 86%). There was no longer disparity in diabetes risk between black and white middle-aged adults after adjustment for biological, neighborhood, psychosocial, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors measured over time (HR for women, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.55-1.14]; HR for men, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.62-1.38]). Conclusions and Relevance:In this cohort study comparing black and white participants, there was a statistically significant increased risk of incident type 2 diabetes among black women and men. However, after adjustment for modifiable risk factors during young adulthood, the disparity was no longer statistically significant.
| S-EPMC5820714 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundGiven our aging population, there's great interest in identifying modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline. Studies have highlighted the relationship between aspects of mobility and cognitive processes. However, cognition and mobility are both multifaceted concepts and their interrelationships remain to be well defined.Research questionHere, we firstly aimed to replicate cross-sectional associations between objective measures of mobility and cognition. Second, we tested whether these associations remained after the consideration of multiple age-related confounders. Finally, to test the hypothesis that the association between mobility and cognition is stronger in older adults, we examined the moderating effect of age in the association between mobility and cognition.MethodsIn the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, 28,808 community-dwelling adults (aged 45-87; 51% female) completed mobility (gait, balance and chair stands) and cognitive (memory, executive function and processing speed) assessments. General linear models were used to examine mobility-cognition relationships and the moderating effect of age.ResultsCognitive measures were significantly associated with mobility measures (all p?<?0.001). Further, age significantly moderated the mobility-cognition relationship, with the strength of the associations generally increasing with age.SignificanceAll cognitive measures were related to indices of mobility, suggesting a global association. In our moderation analyses, the mobility-cognition relationship often increased with age. However, the small effect sizes observed suggest that mobility is, in isolation, not a strong correlate of cognitive performance in middle and late-adulthood.
| S-EPMC6052573 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:Personality is known to predict alcohol consumption, but how alcohol use is related to personality change is less clear, especially at older ages. The present study examined the effects of level of alcohol consumption and history of dependence on change in the Five-Factor Model personality traits in a national cohort of Americans aged over 50. METHOD:Over 10,000 adults who participated in 2006-2008 waves of the Health and Retirement Study reported on personality and alcohol use and were followed over 4 years. RESULTS:Latent difference score models indicated decreases in Extraversion to be attenuated for individuals categorized as light-to-moderate drinkers at baseline, whereas decreases in Conscientiousness were accentuated by having experienced alcohol dependence symptoms. Moreover, personality difference scores correlated with changes in the amount of alcohol consumed at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS:The findings suggest that patterns of alcohol consumption are associated with changes in personality across the second half of the life span.
| S-EPMC6054906 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background The association between diets that focus on plant foods and restrict animal products and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is inconclusive. We investigated whether cumulative intake of a plant-centered diet and shifting toward such a diet are associated with incident CVD. Methods and Results Participants were 4946 adults in the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) prospective study. They were initially 18 to 30 years old and free of CVD (1985-1986, exam year [year 0]) and followed until 2018. Diet was assessed by an interviewer-administered, validated diet history. Plant-centered diet quality was assessed using the A Priori Diet Quality Score (APDQS), in which higher scores indicate higher consumption of nutritionally rich plant foods and limited consumption of high-fat meat products and less healthy plant foods. Proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratios of CVD associated with both time-varying average APDQS and a 13-year change in APDQS score (difference between the year 7 and year 20 assessments). During the 32-year follow-up, 289 incident CVD cases were identified. Both long-term consumption and a change toward such a diet were associated with a lower risk of CVD. Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio was 0.48 (95% CI, 0.28-0.81) when comparing the highest quintile of the time-varying average ADPQS with lowest quintiles. The 13-year change in APDQS was associated with a lower subsequent risk of CVD, with a hazard ratio of 0.39 (95% CI, 0.19-0.81) comparing the extreme quintiles. Similarly, strong inverse associations were found for coronary heart disease and hypertension-related CVD with either the time-varying average or change APDQS. Conclusions Consumption of a plant-centered, high-quality diet starting in young adulthood is associated with a lower risk of CVD by middle age.
| S-EPMC8475033 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundInfant-feeding patterns may influence lifelong health. This study tested the hypothesis that longer duration of breastfeeding and later introduction of complementary foods in infancy are associated with reduced adult cardiovascular risk.MethodsData were pooled from 10?912 subjects in the age range of 15-41?years from five prospective birth-cohort studies in low-/middle-income countries (Brazil, Guatemala, India, Philippines and South Africa). Associations were examined between infant feeding (duration of breastfeeding and age at introduction of complementary foods) and adult blood pressure (BP), plasma glucose concentration and adiposity (skinfolds, waist circumference, percentage body fat and overweight/obesity). Analyses were adjusted for maternal socio-economic status, education, age, smoking, race and urban/rural residence and infant birth weight.ResultsThere were no differences in outcomes between adults who were ever breastfed compared with those who were never breastfed. Duration of breastfeeding was not associated with adult diabetes prevalence or adiposity. There were U-shaped associations between duration of breastfeeding and systolic BP and hypertension; however, these were weak and inconsistent among the cohorts. Later introduction of complementary foods was associated with lower adult adiposity. Body mass index changed by -0.19?kg/m(2) [95% confidence interval (CI) -0.37 to -0.01] and waist circumference by -0.45?cm (95% CI -0.88 to -0.02) per 3-month increase in age at introduction of complementary foods.ConclusionsThere was no evidence that longer duration of breastfeeding is protective against adult hypertension, diabetes or overweight/adiposity in these low-/middle-income populations. Further research is required to determine whether 'exclusive' breastfeeding may be protective. Delaying complementary foods until 6 months, as recommended by the World Health Organization, may reduce the risk of adult overweight/adiposity, but the effect is likely to be small.
| S-EPMC3043278 | biostudies-literature
Project description:During early adulthood, a phase in which the central nervous system displays considerable plasticity and in which important cognitive traits are shaped, the effects of exercise on cognition remain poorly understood. We performed a cohort study of all Swedish men born in 1950 through 1976 who were enlisted for military service at age 18 (N = 1,221,727). Of these, 268,496 were full-sibling pairs, 3,147 twin pairs, and 1,432 monozygotic twin pairs. Physical fitness and intelligence performance data were collected during conscription examinations and linked with other national databases for information on school achievement, socioeconomic status, and sibship. Relationships between cardiovascular fitness and intelligence at age 18 were evaluated by linear models in the total cohort and in subgroups of full-sibling pairs and twin pairs. Cardiovascular fitness, as measured by ergometer cycling, positively associated with intelligence after adjusting for relevant confounders (regression coefficient b = 0.172; 95% CI, 0.168-0.176). Similar results were obtained within monozygotic twin pairs. In contrast, muscle strength was not associated with cognitive performance. Cross-twin cross-trait analyses showed that the associations were primarily explained by individual specific, non-shared environmental influences (> or = 80%), whereas heritability explained < 15% of covariation. Cardiovascular fitness changes between age 15 and 18 y predicted cognitive performance at 18 y. Cox proportional-hazards models showed that cardiovascular fitness at age 18 y predicted educational achievements later in life. These data substantiate that physical exercise could be an important instrument for public health initiatives to optimize educational achievements, cognitive performance, as well as disease prevention at the society level.
| S-EPMC2785721 | biostudies-literature