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Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults

Research supporting cognitive reserve theory suggests that engaging in a variety of cognitive, social, and physical activities may serve as protective factors against age-related changes in mental functioning, especially if the activities are cognitively engaging. Individuals who participate in a va...

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Autores principales: Weaver, Alexandria N., Jaeggi, Susanne M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7990770/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33776844
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.620867
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author Weaver, Alexandria N.
Jaeggi, Susanne M.
author_facet Weaver, Alexandria N.
Jaeggi, Susanne M.
author_sort Weaver, Alexandria N.
collection PubMed
description Research supporting cognitive reserve theory suggests that engaging in a variety of cognitive, social, and physical activities may serve as protective factors against age-related changes in mental functioning, especially if the activities are cognitively engaging. Individuals who participate in a variety of cognitive activities have been found to be more likely to maintain a higher level of cognitive functioning and be less likely to develop dementia. In this study, we explore the relationship between engaging in a variety of activities and cognitive performance amongst 206 healthy older adults between the ages of 65–85. Age and years of education were found to be the most significant predictors of a global composite representing cognitive performance, consistent with previous work linking these variables to age-related changes in cognition and the cognitive reserve. We interpret these results to suggest that age and education are better predictors of global cognitive performance in older adults than self-reported activity engagement.
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spelling pubmed-79907702021-03-26 Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults Weaver, Alexandria N. Jaeggi, Susanne M. Front Psychol Psychology Research supporting cognitive reserve theory suggests that engaging in a variety of cognitive, social, and physical activities may serve as protective factors against age-related changes in mental functioning, especially if the activities are cognitively engaging. Individuals who participate in a variety of cognitive activities have been found to be more likely to maintain a higher level of cognitive functioning and be less likely to develop dementia. In this study, we explore the relationship between engaging in a variety of activities and cognitive performance amongst 206 healthy older adults between the ages of 65–85. Age and years of education were found to be the most significant predictors of a global composite representing cognitive performance, consistent with previous work linking these variables to age-related changes in cognition and the cognitive reserve. We interpret these results to suggest that age and education are better predictors of global cognitive performance in older adults than self-reported activity engagement. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7990770/ /pubmed/33776844 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.620867 Text en Copyright © 2021 Weaver and Jaeggi. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Weaver, Alexandria N.
Jaeggi, Susanne M.
Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults
title Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults
title_full Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults
title_fullStr Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults
title_full_unstemmed Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults
title_short Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance Amongst Older Adults
title_sort activity engagement and cognitive performance amongst older adults
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7990770/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33776844
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.620867
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