Abstract
Objectives: To investigate associations between demographic and lifestyle factors and memory performance in European people aged ≥60 years. Methods: Data from 23,641 people with a mean age of 70.2 (95 % CI 70.1–70.3) were analyzed and drawn from the fourth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Generalized linear models were carried out to estimate the associations for both men and women. Memory performance was tested using two word-list learning tests with immediate and delayed recall in SHARE. Results: age, severe limitations in physical activities, and any past alcohol problem were all negatively associated with memory performance. Contrarily, education level, higher nonalcoholic fluid intake, and engagement in sports activities more than once a week and in activities requiring a moderate level of energy were all positively associated with memory performance. Smoking showed a significant negative association only in the immediate recall test for both men and women together, whilst long-term illness showed association only in the delayed recall. Alcohol consumption was positively associated with memory performance in women, but in men, it depended on the drinking frequency. Conclusions: Demographic and lifestyle factors are associated with memory performance in the older population.
Highlights
Memory problems are among the most common complaints of the older adult population.Memory can be defined as the ability to acquire, process, store, and retrieve information and generally can be categorized into three main stages: sensory information store, short-term episodic memory, and long-term memory [1], which is supported by distinct brain regions [2]
The main objective of this study was to investigate the associations between demographic and lifestyle factors and memory in the older adult population as all these factors have lately been recognized as important correlates of cognitive function including memory in the elderly [2,9,10,13,24,25,26]
The present study confirms and extends such findings by demonstrating that (1) age; (2) education level; (3) long term illness and severe limitation; (4) smoking; (5) alcohol consumption and any past excessive alcohol drinking problems; (6) nonalcoholic daily fluid intake; and (7) engagement in sport and physical activities are all associated with memory performance in the elderly population
Summary
Memory problems are among the most common complaints of the older adult population.Memory can be defined as the ability to acquire, process, store, and retrieve information and generally can be categorized into three main stages: sensory information store, short-term episodic memory, and long-term memory [1], which is supported by distinct brain regions [2]. Memory problems are among the most common complaints of the older adult population. One of the most prominent aspects of ageing is that memory processes show a decline, and many theories were proposed over the years to account for such observed deficits in memory function and ageing [3]. Combined findings of a recent study [4] have shown that age is associated with reduced grey matter volume and memory performance, even when allowing for educational differences, which have been long known to be associated with memory performance [5,6]. Memory impairments have been found to be associated with common age-related diseases such as heart failure, diabetes, or cancer [7]. Other factors related more to an individual’s lifestyle such as good hydration status, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity have been suggested to play a major role [8,9,10]
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