Centre for Policy on Ageing



Everyday cognitive competence in elderly persons — conceptual issues and empirical findings
Author(s)	Sherry L Willis
Journal title	The Gerontologist, vol 36, no 5, October 1996
Pages	pp 595-601
Keywords	Cognitive processes ; Competence ; Independence ; Theory ; Longitudinal surveys.
Annotation	This article results from a keynote session on the measurement of health status at the 1995 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, sponsored by its Medical Sociology Section. The article focuses on everyday cognitive competence - defined as the ability to perform adequately those tasks considered essential for living on one's own in society - as a critical aspect of functional health. The authors present findings from their research on a measure assessing everyday cognitive competence for each of the instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Seven year longitudinal data indicate that there is relatively modest decline in performance on cognitively complex everyday tasks during the 60s, but that steeper patterns of normative decline are found in the late 70s and 80s.
Accession Number	CPA-970528004 A
Classmark	DA: DPB: C3: 4D: 3J
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.