Associations Between Midlife Functional Limitations and Self-Reported Health and Cognitive Status: Results from the 1998-2016 Health and Retirement Study

Background: Life-course approaches to identify and help improve modifiable risk factors, particularly in midlife, may mitigate cognitive aging.

Objective: We examined how midlife self-rated physical functioning and health may predict cognitive health in older age.

Methods: We used data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2016; unweighted-N = 4,685). We used survey multinomial logistic regression and latent growth curve models to examine how midlife (age 50-64 years) activities of daily living (ADL), physical function, and self-reported health affect cognitive trajectories and cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND) and dementia status 18 years later. Then, we tested for sex and racial/ethnic modifications.

Results: After covariates-adjustment, worse instrumental ADL (IADL) functioning, mobility, and self-reported health were associated with both CIND and dementia. Hispanics were more likely to meet criteria for dementia than non-Hispanic Whites given increasing IADL impairment.

Conclusion: Midlife health, activities limitations, and difficulties with mobility are predictive of dementia in later life. Hispanics may be more susceptible to dementia in the presence of midlife IADLs. Assessing midlife physical function and general health with brief questionnaires may be useful for predicting cognitive impairment and dementia in later life.