Centre for Policy on Ageing



Stability of sex differences in cognition in advanced old age — the role of education and attrition
Author(s)	Denis Gerstorf, Agneta Herlitz, Jacqui Smith
Journal title	Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 61B, no 4, July 2006
Pages	pp P245-P249
Source	http://www.geron.org
Keywords	Cognitive processes ; Mental speed ; Mental clarity ; Learning capacity ; Older men ; Older women ; Comparison ; Longitudinal surveys ; Germany.
Annotation	The authors examined whether patterns of sex differences on tasks of perceptual speed, episodic memory, verbal fluency and verbal knowledge are maintained during advanced old age. Using incomplete 13-year longitudinal data from 368 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) screened for dementia (mean age 83; age range 70-100 at baseline), the authors estimated sex-specific age trajectories of cognitive change and explored the contributing role of education and attrition. They found that women and men declined virtually in parallel, with no evidence of differential change. After controlling for age cohort-related differences in education, women outperformed men on tasks in the four cognitive domains. Findings also provide initial evidence that sex differences might be masked by differential patterns of sample attrition. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-070504222 A
Classmark	DA: DG: DF: DE: BC: BD: 48: 3J: 767
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.