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Sending Your Grandparents to University Increases Cognitive Reserve: The Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 14:41 authored by Lenehan, ME, Mathew SummersMathew Summers, Saunders, NL, Jeffery SummersJeffery Summers, Ward, DD, Ritchie, K, James VickersJames Vickers

OBJECTIVE: Increasing an individual's level of cognitive reserve (CR) has been suggested as a nonpharmacological approach to reducing the risk for Alzheimer's disease. We examined changes in CR in older adults participating over 4 years in the Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project.

METHOD: A sample of 459 healthy older adults between 50 and 79 years of age underwent a comprehensive annual assessment of current CR, neuropsychological function, and psychosocial factors over a 4-year period. The intervention group of 359 older adults (M = 59.61 years, SD = 6.67) having completed a minimum of 12 months part-time university study were compared against a control reference group of 100 adults (M = 62.49 years, SD = 6.24) who did not engage in further education.

RESULTS: Growth mixture modeling demonstrated that 44.3% of the control sample showed no change in CR, whereas 92.5% of the further education participants displayed a significant linear increase in CR over the 4 years of the study. These results indicate that older adults engaging in high-level mental stimulation display an increase in CR over a 4-year period.

CONCLUSION: Increasing mental activity in older adulthood may be a viable strategy to improve cognitive function and offset cognitive decline associated with normal aging.

History

Publication title

Neuropsychology

Volume

30

Issue

5

Pagination

525-531

ISSN

0894-4105

Department/School

Wicking Dementia Research Education Centre

Publisher

Amer Psychological Assoc

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

© 2015 American Psychological Association

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Other health not elsewhere classified

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