Centre for Policy on Ageing



Lifetime intellectual function and satisfaction with life in old age — longitudinal cohort study
Author(s)	Alan J Gow, Martha C Whiteman, Alison Pattie
Journal title	British Medical Journal, vol 331, no 7509, 16 July 2005
Pages	pp 141-142
Source	http://www.bmj.com
Keywords	Mental health [elderly] ; Life span ; Well being ; Octogenarians ; Longitudinal surveys ; Lothians.
Annotation	Cognitive vitality has an impact on many aspects of functioning in old age. The authors note that cognitive level in youth and the amount of cognitive change across the lifespan are important indicators of cognitive vitality in old age. They examined a unique data set to investigate whether these factors are associated with people being happier. This short article outlines their work with the Lothian birth cohort 1921, a relatively healthy group of 550 older people, whose mental abilities were tested with a version of the Moray House test. They found that life satisfaction in people aged about 80 was unrelated to IQ in either childhood or late adulthood and to cognitive change in their lifetime. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-050906221 A
Classmark	D: BG6: D:F:5HH: BBM: 3J: 9S *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.