Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:45:38.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The association of cognitive performance with mental health and physical functioning strengthens with age: the Whitehall II cohort study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

M. Jokela ,
A. Singh-Manoux ,
J. E. Ferrie ,
D. Gimeno ,
T. N. Akbaraly ,
M. J. Shipley ,
J. Head ,
M. Elovainio ,
M. G. Marmot  and
M. Kivimäki
M. Jokela*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland
A. Singh-Manoux
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK INSERM U687, AP-HP, France
J. E. Ferrie
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK
D. Gimeno
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX, USA
T. N. Akbaraly
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK INSERM U888, Montpellier, France
M. J. Shipley
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK
J. Head
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK
M. Elovainio
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Helsinki, Finland
M. G. Marmot
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK
M. Kivimäki
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr M. Jokela, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, FIN-00014, Finland. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Cognitive performance has been associated with mental and physical health, but it is unknown whether the strength of these associations changes with ageing and with age-related social transitions, such as retirement. We examined whether cognitive performance predicted mental and physical health from midlife to early old age.

Method

Participants were 5414 men and 2278 women from the Whitehall II cohort study followed for 15 years between 1991 and 2006. The age range included over the follow-up was from 40 to 75 years. Mental health and physical functioning were measured six times using SF-36 subscales. Cognitive performance was assessed three times using five cognitive tests assessing verbal and numerical reasoning, verbal memory, and phonemic and semantic fluency. Socio-economic status (SES) and retirement were included as covariates.

Results

High cognitive performance was associated with better mental health and physical functioning. Mental health differences associated with cognitive performance widened with age from 39 to 76 years of age, whereas physical functioning differences widened only between 39 and 60 years and not after 60 years of age. SES explained part of the widening differences in mental health and physical functioning before age 60. Cognitive performance was more strongly associated with mental health in retired than non-retired participants, which contributed to the widening differences after 60 years of age.

Conclusions

The strength of cognitive performance in predicting mental and physical health may increase from midlife to early old age, and these changes may be related to SES and age-related transitions, such as retirement.

Keywords

Agingcognitive epidemiologyintelligencelongitudinal studies
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 5 , May 2010 , pp. 837 - 845
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batty, GD, Deary, IJ, Gottfredson, LS (2007 a). Premorbid (early life) IQ and later mortality risk: systematic review. Annals of Epidemiology 17, 278–288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Batty, GD, Deary, IJ, Macintyre, S (2007 b). Childhood IQ in relation to risk factors for premature mortality in middle-aged persons: the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61, 241–247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Batty, GD, Deary, IJ, Schoon, I, Gale, CR (2007 c). Mental ability across childhood in relation to risk factors for premature mortality in adult life: the 1970 British Cohort Study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61, 997–1003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Batty, GD, Shipley, MJ, Mortensen, LH, Boyle, SH, Barefoot, J, Grønbaek, M, Gale, CR, Deary, IJ (2008). IQ in late adolescence/early adulthood, risk factors in middle age and later all-cause mortality in men: the Vietnam Experience Study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 62, 522–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borkowski, JG, Benton, AL, Spreen, O (1967). Word fluency and brain damage. Neurophysiologia 5, 135–140.Google Scholar
Bosma, H, van Boxtel, MP, Kempen, GI, van Eijk, JT, Jolles, J (2007). To what extent does IQ ‘explain’ socio-economic variations in function? BMC Public Health 25, 179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandola, T, Ferrie, J, Sacker, A, Marmot, M (2007). Social inequalities in self reported health in early old age: follow-up of prospective cohort study. British Medical Journal 334, 990.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chodosh, J, Kado, DM, Seeman, TE, Karlamangla, AS (2007). Depressive symptoms as a predictor of cognitive decline: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 15, 406–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deary, IJ, Batty, GD (2007). Cognitive epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61, 378–384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Der, G, Batty, GD, Deary, IJ (2009). The association between IQ in adolescence and a range of health outcomes at 40 in the 1979 US National Longitudinal Study of Youth. Intelligence. Published online 20 January 2009. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2008.12.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dotson, VM, Resnick, SM, Zonderman, AB (2008). Differential association of concurrent, baseline, and average depressive symptoms with cognitive decline in older adults. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 16, 318–330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drentea, P (2002). Retirement and mental health. Journal of Aging and Health 14, 167–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gale, CR, Hatch, SL, Batty, GD, Deary, IJ (2008). Intelligence in childhood and risk of psychological distress in adulthood: the 1958 National Child Development Survey and the 1970 British Cohort Study. Intelligence. Published online 8 October 2008. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2008.09.002.Google Scholar
Ganguli, M, Du, Y, Dodge, HH, Ratcliff, GG, Chang, CC (2006). Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline in late life: a prospective epidemiological study. Archives of General Psychiatry 63, 153–160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gelman, A, Hill, J (2007). Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gottfredson, LS (2004). Intelligence: is it the epidemiologists' elusive ‘fundamental cause’ of social class inequalities in health? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 86, 174–199.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottfredson, LS, Deary, IJ (2004). Intelligence predicts health and longevity, but why? Current Directions in Psychological Science 13, 1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, CL, Taylor, MD, Davey Smith, G, Whalley, LJ, Starr, JM, Hole, DJ, Wilson, V, Deary, IJ (2003). Childhood IQ, social class, deprivation, and their relationships with mortality and morbidity risk in later life: prospective observational study linking the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan studies. Psychosomatic Medicine 65, 877–883.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, CL, Taylor, MD, Smith, GD, Whalley, LJ, Starr, JM, Hole, DJ, Wilson, V, Deary, IJ (2004). Childhood IQ and cardiovascular disease in adulthood: prospective observational study linking the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan studies. Social Science and Medicine 59, 2131–2138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hatch, SL, Jones, PB, Kuh, D, Hardy, R, Wadsworth, ME, Richards, M (2007). Childhood cognitive ability and adult mental health in the British 1946 birth cohort. Social Science and Medicine 64, 2285–2296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heim, AW (1970). AHA4 Group Test for General Intelligence. Windsor: ASE/NFER-Nelson Publishing Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Holland, CA, Rabbitt, PMA (1991). The course and causes of cognitive change with advancing age. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology 1, 81–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jokela, M, Batty, GD, Deary, IJ, Gale, CR, Kivimäki, M (2009 a). Childhood IQ and early mortality: assessing the role of childhood and adult risk factors in the 1958 British birth cohort. Pediatrics. Published online 10 August 2009. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-1536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jokela, M, Elovainio, M, Singh-Manoux, A, Kivimäki, M (2009 b). IQ, socioeconomic status, and early mortality: the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Psychosomatic Medicine 71, 322–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, JE, Moen, P (2001). Is retirement good or bad for subjective well-being? Current Directions in Psychological Science 10, 83–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumari, M, Seeman, T, Marmot, M (2004). Biological predictors of change in functioning in the Whitehall II study. Annals of Epidemiology 14, 250–257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, M, Brunner, E (2005). Cohort profile: the Whitehall II study. International Journal of Epidemiology 34, 251–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, MG, Davey Smith, G, Stansfeld, S, Patel, C, North, F, Head, J, White, I, Brunner, E, Feeney, A (1991). Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet 337, 1387–1393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, LT, Kubzansky, LD, LeWinn, KZ, Lipsitt, LP, Satz, P, Buka, SL (2007). Childhood cognitive performance and risk of generalized anxiety disorder. International Journal of Epidemiology 36, 769–775.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mein, G, Martikainen, P, Hemingway, H, Stansfeld, S, Marmot, M (2003). Is retirement good or bad for mental and physical health functioning? Whitehall II longitudinal study of civil servants. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57, 46–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Naumova, EN, Must, A, Laird, NM (2001). Tutorial in biostatistics: evaluating the impact of ‘critical periods’ in longitudinal studies of growth using piecewise mixed effects models. International Journal of Epidemiology 30, 1332–1341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rugulies, R (2002). Depression as a predictor for coronary heart disease. A review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 23, 51–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sabia, S, Guéguen, A, Marmot, MG, Shipley, MJ, Ankri, J, Singh-Manoux, A (2008). Does cognition predict mortality in midlife? Results from the Whitehall II cohort study. Neurobiology of Aging. Published online 9 June 2008. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.05.007.Google ScholarPubMed
Sacker, A, Clarke, P, Wiggins, RD, Bartley, M (2005). Social dynamics of health inequalities: a growth curve analysis of aging and self assessed health in the British household panel survey 1991–2001. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 59, 495–501.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schnittker, J (2005). Cognitive abilities and self-rated health: is there a relationship? Is it growing? Does it explain disparities? Social Science Research 34, 821–842.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, JB, Willett, JB (2003). Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence. Oxford University Press: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh-Manoux, A, Ferrie, JE, Lynch, JW, Marmot, M (2005). The role of cognitive ability (intelligence) in explaining the association between socioeconomic position and health: evidence from the Whitehall II prospective cohort study. American Journal of Epidemiology 161, 831–839.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh-Manoux, A, Gimeno, D, Kivimäki, M, Brunner, E, Marmot, MG (2008 a). Low HDL cholesterol is a risk factor for deficit and decline in memory in midlife: the Whitehall II study. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 28, 1556–1562.Google Scholar
Singh-Manoux, A, Marmot, M (2005). High blood pressure was associated with cognitive function in middle-age in the Whitehall II study. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 58, 1308–1315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh-Manoux, A, Sabia, S, Lajnef, M, Ferrie, JE, Nabi, H, Britton, AR, Marmot, MG, Shipley, MJ (2008 b). History of coronary heart disease and cognitive performance in midlife: the Whitehall II study. European Heart Journal. Published online 22 July 2008. doi:10.1093/j.eurheartj/ehn298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strenze, T (2007). Intelligence and socioeconomic success: a meta-analytic review of longitudinal research. Intelligence 35, 401–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ware, JE, Snow, KK, Kosinski, M, Gandek, B (1993). SF-36 Health Survey Manual and Interpretation Guide. New England Medical Center: Boston.Google Scholar
Ware, JE Jr. (2000). SF-36 health survey update. Spine 25, 3130–3139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whalley, LJ, Deary, IJ (2001). Longitudinal cohort study of childhood IQ and survival up to age 76. British Medical Journal 322, 819.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yaffe, K, Blackwell, T, Gore, R, Sands, L, Reus, V, Browner, WS (1999). Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline in nondemented elderly women: a prospective study. Archives of General Psychiatry 56, 425–430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zammit, S, Allebeck, P, David, AS, Dalman, C, Hemmingsson, T, Lundberg, I, Lewis, G (2004). A longitudinal study of premorbid IQ score and risk of developing schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, and other nonaffective psychoses. Archives of General Psychiatry 61, 354–360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed