Abstract
This study examined the association between smoking, physical activity and dietary choice at 36 and 43 years, and change in these lifestyle behaviors between these ages, and decline in verbal memory and visual search speed between 43 and 60–64 years in 1018 participants from MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD, the British 1946 birth cohort). ANCOVA models were adjusted for sex, social class of origin, childhood cognition, educational attainment, adult social class, and depression; then the lifestyle behaviors were additionally mutually adjusted. Results showed that healthy dietary choice and physical activity were associated, respectively, with slower memory and visual search speed decline over 20 years, with evidence that increasing physical activity was important. Adopting positive health behaviors from early midlife may be beneficial in reducing the rate of cognitive decline and ultimately reducing the risk of dementia.
Highlights
With an increase in the ageing population, the number of older people affected by cognitive decline and dementia is continually rising, causing a major public health impact on individuals and governments around the world [1]
In addition to the independent and combined effects of these behaviors, we examined the cumulative effects of these behaviors across early midlife and the changes in these behaviors from one age to another
A similar pattern was observed for those without cognitive scores at age 60+. Those with missing scores on memory at age 43 had a marginally higher total anxiety and depression score at the same age than those who underwent memory testing (P = 0.058). Those who did not complete data on lifestyle behaviors at both 36 and 43 years had lower cognitive scores for both verbal memory (P < 0.001) and visual search (P = 0.076; P = 0.010) at age 43 and 60+, were more likely to belong to a manual occupation of social class of origin (P < 0.001), and had less than advanced levels of educational attainment by age 26 years (P < 0.001)
Summary
With an increase in the ageing population, the number of older people affected by cognitive decline and dementia is continually rising, causing a major public health impact on individuals and governments around the world [1]. Similar findings from the Suwon Longitudinal Aging Study (SLAS) showed that a combination of multiple positive lifestyle behaviors (such as nonsmoking, vegetable consumption, and social activity) was associated with higher cognitive ability [11]. Since these behaviors tend to cluster [12, 13], the extent to which apparent effects of one behavior are attributable to (i.e., confounded by) another is uncertain
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