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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Physical and cognitive functioning of people older than 90 years a comparison of two Danish cohorts born 10 years apart | Author(s) | Kaare Christensen, Mikael Thinggaard, Anna Oksuzyan |
Journal title | The Lancet, July 11 2013 |
Pages | pp 1-9 |
Source | http://press.thelancet.com/nonagenarians.pdf |
Keywords | Nonagenarians ; Self care capacity ; Mobility ; Physical capacity ; Cognitive processes ; Evaluation ; Denmark. |
Annotation | A rapidly increasing proportion of people in high-income countries are surviving into their tenth decade. Concern is widespread that the basis for this development is the survival of frail and disabled older people into very old age. To investigate this issue, the authors compared the cognitive and physical functioning of two cohorts of Danish nonagenarians, born 10 years apart. People in the first cohort were born in 1905 and assessed at age 93 years (n=2262); those in the second cohort were born in 1915 and assessed at age 95 years (n=1584). All cohort members were eligible irrespective of type of residence. Both cohorts were assessed by surveys that used the same design and assessment instrument, and had almost identical response rates (63%). Cognitive functioning was assessed by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and a composite of five cognitive tests that are sensitive to age-related changes. Physical functioning was assessed by an activities of daily living (ADL) score and by physical performance tests (grip strength, chair stand, and gait speed). The chance of surviving from birth to age 93 years was 28% higher in the 1915 cohort than in the 1905 cohort (6·50% vs 5·06%), and the chance of reaching 95 years was 32% higher in 1915 cohort (3·93% vs 2·98%). The 1915 cohort scored significantly better on the MMSE than did the 1905 cohort (22·8 [SD 5·6] vs 21·4 [6·0]; p<0·0001), with a substantially higher proportion of participants obtaining maximum scores (28-30 points; 277 [23%] vs 235 [13%]; p<0·0001). Similarly, the cognitive composite score was significantly better in the 1915 than in the 1905 cohort (0·49 [SD 3·6] vs 0·01 [SD 3·6]; p=0·0003). The cohorts did not differ consistently in the physical performance tests, but the 1915 cohort had significantly better ADL scores than did the 1905 cohort (2·0 [SD 0·8] vs 1·8 [0·7]; p<0·0001). Despite being 2 years older at assessment, the 1915 cohort scored significantly better than the 1905 cohort on both the cognitive tests and the ADL score, which suggests that more people are living to older ages with better overall functioning. The research was funded by the Danish National Research Foundation, the US National Institutes of Health _ National Institute on Aging, the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, and the VELUX Foundation. |
Accession Number | CPA-130719214 A |
Classmark | BBR: CA: C4: BI: DA: 4C: 76K * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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