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Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents

BACKGROUND: We explored whether number of languages spoken and language proficiency are associated with cognitive performance among older adults living in the community and in long-term care (LTC) in Switzerland. METHODS: Among study participants, 664 lived in the community in the Canton of Zurich (...

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Autores principales: Pacifico, Deborah, Sabatini, Serena, Fiordelli, Maddalena, Annoni, Anna Maria, Frei, Anja, Puhan, Milo, Graf, Gwendolyn, Albanese, Emiliano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10559505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37803260
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-04311-4
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author Pacifico, Deborah
Sabatini, Serena
Fiordelli, Maddalena
Annoni, Anna Maria
Frei, Anja
Puhan, Milo
Graf, Gwendolyn
Albanese, Emiliano
author_facet Pacifico, Deborah
Sabatini, Serena
Fiordelli, Maddalena
Annoni, Anna Maria
Frei, Anja
Puhan, Milo
Graf, Gwendolyn
Albanese, Emiliano
author_sort Pacifico, Deborah
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: We explored whether number of languages spoken and language proficiency are associated with cognitive performance among older adults living in the community and in long-term care (LTC) in Switzerland. METHODS: Among study participants, 664 lived in the community in the Canton of Zurich (Mean age = 72.97 years; SD = 6.08), 386 lived in the community in Ticino (Mean age = 76.24 years; SD = 6.66), and 176 resided in LTC in Ticino (Mean age = 87.61 years; SD = 6.45). We recorded sociodemographic variables, number of languages spoken, language proficiency, and assessed overall cognitive performance, immediate and delayed memory, and verbal fluency with standardized tests. We used adjusted regression models. RESULTS: A higher number of spoken languages was positively associated with overall cognitive performance, verbal fluency and immediate and delayed memory performance in community-dwelling older adults in the Cantons of Ticino and Zurich, (all p values ≤ 0.012;), but not in in older adults living in LTC homes (all p values ≥ 0.35). Higher language proficiency was associated with better memory performance among individuals living in the community in Ticino (p value = 0.003), and to better performance in verbal fluency and memory tasks in Zurich (p values ≤ 0.002). Among LTC residents, proficiency levels were not associated with cognitive performance. CONCLUSIONS: Multilingualism and greater language proficiency were associated with better cognitive functioning in community-dwelling but not in institutionalized older adults. Multilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve, as well as protect and delay cognitive decline in late life.
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spelling pubmed-105595052023-10-08 Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents Pacifico, Deborah Sabatini, Serena Fiordelli, Maddalena Annoni, Anna Maria Frei, Anja Puhan, Milo Graf, Gwendolyn Albanese, Emiliano BMC Geriatr Research BACKGROUND: We explored whether number of languages spoken and language proficiency are associated with cognitive performance among older adults living in the community and in long-term care (LTC) in Switzerland. METHODS: Among study participants, 664 lived in the community in the Canton of Zurich (Mean age = 72.97 years; SD = 6.08), 386 lived in the community in Ticino (Mean age = 76.24 years; SD = 6.66), and 176 resided in LTC in Ticino (Mean age = 87.61 years; SD = 6.45). We recorded sociodemographic variables, number of languages spoken, language proficiency, and assessed overall cognitive performance, immediate and delayed memory, and verbal fluency with standardized tests. We used adjusted regression models. RESULTS: A higher number of spoken languages was positively associated with overall cognitive performance, verbal fluency and immediate and delayed memory performance in community-dwelling older adults in the Cantons of Ticino and Zurich, (all p values ≤ 0.012;), but not in in older adults living in LTC homes (all p values ≥ 0.35). Higher language proficiency was associated with better memory performance among individuals living in the community in Ticino (p value = 0.003), and to better performance in verbal fluency and memory tasks in Zurich (p values ≤ 0.002). Among LTC residents, proficiency levels were not associated with cognitive performance. CONCLUSIONS: Multilingualism and greater language proficiency were associated with better cognitive functioning in community-dwelling but not in institutionalized older adults. Multilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve, as well as protect and delay cognitive decline in late life. BioMed Central 2023-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10559505/ /pubmed/37803260 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-04311-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Pacifico, Deborah
Sabatini, Serena
Fiordelli, Maddalena
Annoni, Anna Maria
Frei, Anja
Puhan, Milo
Graf, Gwendolyn
Albanese, Emiliano
Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents
title Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents
title_full Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents
title_fullStr Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents
title_full_unstemmed Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents
title_short Associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the SwissDEM study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents
title_sort associations of multilingualism and language proficiency with cognitive functioning: epidemiological evidence from the swissdem study in community dwelling older adults and long-term care residents
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10559505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37803260
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-04311-4
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