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Risk of cognitive declines with retirement: Who declines and why?

ABSTRACT: Retiring is associated with increased risk of cognitive decline (e.g., Bonsang, Adam, & Perelman, 2012; Wickrama, O'Neal, Kwag, & Lee, 2013). However, little is known about the moderating role of motivational and demographic factors that are implicated in adaptive development and the retirement transition process. We used data from the Midlife in the United States Study (n = 732, M_age = 57, SD = 5.76, 50% female) to examine whether the association between retirement and cognitive decline depended on a key motivation factor (goal disengagement) in propensity score matched samples of older retirees and employees. We explored whether these effects were further moderated by gender. Results showed that those who retired (vs. remained employed) experienced steeper 9-year declines in episodic memory (b = -.41, p = .001) only if they were high in goal disengagement and female. Findings are consistent with theories of lifespan development and cognitive aging and provide initial evidence that retirement may be associated with increased cognitive declines for only certain individuals prone to disengage from highly challenging activities and goal pursuits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Hamm JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7165065 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Risk of cognitive declines with retirement: Who declines and why?

Hamm Jeremy M JM Heckhausen Jutta J Shane Jacob J Lachman Margie E ME

Psychology and aging 20200316 3

Retiring is associated with increased risk of cognitive decline (e.g., Bonsang, Adam, & Perelman, 2012; Wickrama, O'Neal, Kwag, & Lee, 2013). However, little is known about the moderating role of motivational and demographic factors that are implicated in adaptive development and the retirement transition process. We used data from the Midlife in the United States Study (n = 732, Mage = 57, SD = 5.76, 50% female) to examine whether the association between retireme ...[more]

PMID: 32175753

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Project description:ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the relationship between disability and domain-specific cognitive function in older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).DesignCross-sectional analyses combined with retrospective longitudinal analyses.SettingWe included 450 communities in China.ParticipantsIn this study, 1022 (mean age: 68.6±6.3; 612 males) and 152 (mean age: 67.0±5.2; 83 males) older adults with COPD from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were included in a cross-sectional multivariate linear regression analysis and a longitudinal logistic regression analysis, respectively.Outcome measuresDisability was determined by the difficulty or inability to complete 1 of the 12 activity items in basic activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL. The cognitive dimensions of episodic memory, attention/numerical ability, orientation to time, and visuospatial ability were assessed via the immediate/delayed recall task, serial sevens task, naming the current date and pentagon-figure-drawing tasks, respectively.ResultsOf 1022 older respondents with COPD at wave-4, 48.5% had ADL disability. Declines in the global cognitive function (β (95% CI)=-0.627 (-1.214 to -0.040)), orientation to time (β (95% CI)=-0.207 (-0.364 to -0.050)) and visuospatial ability (β (95% CI)=-0.068 (-0.127 to -0.009)) were significantly associated with the presence of ADL disability, when demographic and health-related variables were adjusted. Of 152 older participants with COPD and without ADL disability in wave-2, 61 (40.1 %) developed disability over a 2-year follow-up. Relative to the participants without a decline in orientation to tine, those with the condition had greater odds of incidence of ADL disability increased by a factor of about 1.46 over a 2-year follow-up.ConclusionsIn older adults with COPD, orientation to time and visuospatial inability are vulnerable to the presence of a disability. Prevention of a decline in orientation to time might help prevent disability in older people with COPD.

Project description:Declines in cognitive functioning are commonly experienced with aging, yet there is wide variation in the nature and extent of these changes. Previous research has shown associations between the frequency of engaging in stimulating cognitive activities and performance on cognitive tests. However, it is not known whether it is important to increase the amount of cognitive activity as one gets older in order to curtail cognitive declines. We examined cognitive activities and cognition in a national sample of 2,130 community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States longitudinal study. Participants completed cognitive assessments of episodic memory (EM) and executive functioning (EF) on two occasions, ~9 years apart. At the first assessment, participants ranged in age between 33 and 83 years (M = 55.76, SD = 11.09), with 56.1% women. Multilevel models were tested to examine educational level and change in cognitive activity as predictors of change in EM and EF, controlling for initial level of cognitive activity and key correlates of cognitive decline. Results indicated that increases in cognitive activity were important over and above earlier levels of cognitive activity for reducing declines in EF. Further analysis also showed differential results by educational level. Increased cognitive activity was not associated with changes in EF among individuals with a college degree. In contrast, individuals without a college degree who increased their cognitive activity showed significantly less decline in EF compared to those without a college degree who decreased or maintained their cognitive activity across the 9 years. Thus, the results suggest that increased engagement in cognitive activity makes more of a difference for EF declines among those without a college degree. The results have particular relevance given that aging-related changes in domains such as work status, health, or social relationships can lead to reductions in stimulating cognitive activities. The findings emphasize the importance of increasing cognitive activities especially among those with lower educational attainment.

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Risk of cognitive declines with retirement: Who declines and why?

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Risk of cognitive declines with retirement: Who declines and why?

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