- Cognitive decline naturally occurs as we age, with a common belief that dementia is the cause in most cases.
- Researchers at the Ohio State University say there are more factors causing cognitive decline than we once thought.
- Socioeconomic factors, physical health measures, and behaviors, including exercise and smoking, accounted for 38% of the variation between participants in their level of cognitive function at age 54, researchers reported.
Generally speaking, most people associate cognitive decline with dementia diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
However, only about 41% of this decline can be accounted for by dementia. A number of risk factors that may also contribute to cognitive decline, including socioeconomic status, education, race, physical health measures, and behaviors such as exercise and smoking, have previously been identified. But researchers at The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan have now found that these factors only account for a small amount of the variation in mental abilities among older people highlighting gaps in the knowledge needed to reduce cognitive decline.
The study appears in the journal PLoS ONE.
For this study, the research team applied a statistical approach to examine associations between various lifestyle factors and cognitive decline in older Americans.
“Prior studies have produced some mixed findings regarding some determinants of cognitive functioning, which could come from different datasets, research designs, time periods, and countries,” Dr. Hui Zheng, professor in the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University, and lead author of this study explained to Medical News Today.
“They may also stem from the fact that each individual study only assessed a limited number of predictors without accounting for intercorrelations with…
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