Cognitive Ability in Late Life and Onset of Physical Frailty: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

Overview

Journal J Am Geriatr Soc

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2017 Mar 2

PMID 28248416

Citations 17

Authors

Catharine R Gale

Stuart J Ritchie

Cyrus Cooper

John M Starr

Ian J Deary

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate whether poorer cognitive ability is a risk factor for development of physical frailty and whether this risk varies according to cognitive domain.

Design: Prospective longitudinal study with 6-year follow-up.

Setting: Edinburgh, Scotland.

Participants: Members of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (N = 594).

Measurements: Frailty was assessed at ages 70 and 76 using the Fried criteria. Cognitive function was assessed at age 70, 73, and 76. Factor score estimates were derived for baseline level of and change in four cognitive domains: visuospatial ability, memory, processing speed, and crystallized cognitive ability.

Results: Higher baseline levels of processing speed, memory, visuospatial ability and crystallized ability at age 70, and less decline in speed, memory, and crystallized ability were associated with less risk of becoming physically frail by age 76. When all cognitive domains were modelled together, processing speed was the only domain associated with frailty risk, for a standard deviation (SD) increment in initial level of processing speed, the risk of frailty was 47% less (0.53 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.33-0.85) after adjustment for age, sex, baseline frailty status, social class, depressive symptoms, number of chronic physical diseases, levels of inflammatory biomarkers, and other cognitive factor score estimates; for a SD increment in processing speed change (less decline) risk of frailty was 74% less (RRR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.16-0.42). When additional analyses were conducted using a single test of processing speed that did not require fast motor responses (inspection time), results were similar.

Conclusions: The speed with which older adults process information and the rate at which this declines over time may be an important indicator of the risk of physical frailty.

Citing Articles

Frailty and Processing Speed Performance at the Cusp of Midlife in CATSLife.

Luna M, Pahlen S, Corley R, Wadsworth S, Reynolds C J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023; 78(11):1834-1842.

PMID: 37480567 PMC: 10645312. DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbad102.

The mediating role of Vitamin D in the association between personality and memory: Evidence from two samples.

Stephan Y, Sutin A, Luchetti M, Aschwanden D, Terracciano A Biol Psychol. 2023; 178:108525.

PMID: 36806675 PMC: 10106409. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108525.

Cognitive impairment in people with physical frailty using the phenotype model: A systematic review and meta analysis.

Vahedi A, Eriksdotter M, Ihle-Hansen H, Wyller T, Oksengard A, Fure B Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2022; 37(11).

PMID: 36221235 PMC: 9828066. DOI: 10.1002/gps.5822.

Transition to frailty in older Japanese people during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: a prospective cohort study.

Shinohara T, Saida K, Tanaka S, Murayama A, Higuchi D Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2021; 98:104562.

PMID: 34715458 PMC: 8524810. DOI: 10.1016/j.archger.2021.104562.

Prospective Associations between Plasma Amyloid-Beta 42/40 and Frailty in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Lu W, Giudici K, Rolland Y, Guyonnet S, Li Y, Bateman R J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2020; 8(1):41-47.

PMID: 33336223 PMC: 9982745. DOI: 10.14283/jpad.2020.60.

References

Boyle P, Buchman A, Wilson R, Leurgans S, Bennett D . Physical frailty is associated with incident mild cognitive impairment in community-based older persons. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2010; 58(2):248-55. PMC: 3150526. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02671.x. View

Seaman S, White I . Review of inverse probability weighting for dealing with missing data. Stat Methods Med Res. 2011; 22(3):278-95. DOI: 10.1177/0962280210395740. View

Fried L, Tangen C, Walston J, Newman A, Hirsch C, Gottdiener J . Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2001; 56(3):M146-56. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/56.3.m146. View

Avila-Funes J, Carcaillon L, Helmer C, Carriere I, Ritchie K, Rouaud O . Is frailty a prodromal stage of vascular dementia? Results from the Three-City Study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2012; 60(9):1708-12. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2012.04142.x. View

Morley J, Vellas B, Abellan van Kan G, Anker S, Bauer J, Bernabei R . Frailty consensus: a call to action. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2013; 14(6):392-7. PMC: 4084863. DOI: 10.1016/j.jamda.2013.03.022. View

Auyeung T, Lee J, Kwok T, Woo J . Physical frailty predicts future cognitive decline - a four-year prospective study in 2737 cognitively normal older adults. J Nutr Health Aging. 2011; 15(8):690-4. DOI: 10.1007/s12603-011-0110-9. View

Rosario B, Rosso A, Aizenstein H, Harris T, Newman A, Satterfield S . Cerebral White Matter and Slow Gait: Contribution of Hyperintensities and Normal-appearing Parenchyma. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2016; 71(7):968-73. PMC: 4906323. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glv224. View

Salthouse T . Relations between cognitive abilities and measures of executive functioning. Neuropsychology. 2005; 19(4):532-545. DOI: 10.1037/0894-4105.19.4.532. View

Bandeen-Roche K, Xue Q, Ferrucci L, Walston J, Guralnik J, Chaves P . Phenotype of frailty: characterization in the women's health and aging studies. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006; 61(3):262-6. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/61.3.262. View

10.

Deary I, Gow A, Pattie A, Starr J . Cohort profile: the Lothian Birth Cohorts of 1921 and 1936. Int J Epidemiol. 2012; 41(6):1576-84. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyr197. View

11.

Gale C, Cooper C, Sayer A . Prevalence of frailty and disability: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Age Ageing. 2014; 44(1):162-5. PMC: 4311180. DOI: 10.1093/ageing/afu148. View

12.

Robertson D, Savva G, Coen R, Kenny R . Cognitive function in the prefrailty and frailty syndrome. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014; 62(11):2118-24. DOI: 10.1111/jgs.13111. View

13.

Folstein M, Folstein S, McHugh P . "Mini-mental state". A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res. 1975; 12(3):189-98. DOI: 10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6. View

14.

Campisi J, dAdda di Fagagna F . Cellular senescence: when bad things happen to good cells. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2007; 8(9):729-40. DOI: 10.1038/nrm2233. View

15.

Wu Y, Liu L, Chen W, Lee W, Peng L, Wang P . Cognitive Function in Individuals With Physical Frailty but Without Dementia or Cognitive Complaints: Results From the I-Lan Longitudinal Aging Study. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2015; 16(10):899.e9-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.jamda.2015.07.013. View

16.

Ritchie S, Tucker-Drob E, Deary I . A strong link between speed of visual discrimination and cognitive ageing. Curr Biol. 2014; 24(15):R681-3. PMC: 4123160. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.06.012. View

17.

Gray S, Anderson M, Hubbard R, Lacroix A, Crane P, McCormick W . Frailty and incident dementia. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2013; 68(9):1083-90. PMC: 3738027. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glt013. View

18.

Boyd C, Xue Q, Simpson C, Guralnik J, Fried L . Frailty, hospitalization, and progression of disability in a cohort of disabled older women. Am J Med. 2005; 118(11):1225-31. DOI: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.01.062. View

19.

Penke L, Munoz Maniega S, Murray C, Gow A, Valdes Hernandez M, Clayden J . A general factor of brain white matter integrity predicts information processing speed in healthy older people. J Neurosci. 2010; 30(22):7569-74. PMC: 6632368. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1553-10.2010. View

20.

Kuznetsova K, Munoz Maniega S, Ritchie S, Cox S, Storkey A, Starr J . Brain white matter structure and information processing speed in healthy older age. Brain Struct Funct. 2015; 221(6):3223-35. PMC: 4920858. DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1097-5. View