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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Occupation type as a predictor of cognitive decline and dementia in old age | | Author(s) | Anthony F Jorm, Bryan Rodgers, A Scott Henderson |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 27, no 4, July 1998 |
| Pages | pp 477-483 |
| Keywords | Older men ; Occupations ; Mental ageing ; Dementia ; Correlation ; Cognitive processes ; Evaluation ; Longitudinal surveys ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Data were taken from a longitudinal study of 518 men aged 70 and over. Main occupation was coded into one of six categories of the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations. Subjects completed four cognitive tests and were diagnosed for dementia on two occasions three and a half years apart. Cognitive tests were: the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Episodic Memory Test, Symbol-Letter Modalities Test, and National Adult Reading Test. Informants also completed the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly. Dementia was diagnosed by DSM-III-R and ICD criteria using the Canberra Interview for the Elderly. Older men who had worked in manual (`realistic') occupations (which include trade, technical and some service occupations) performed worse on cognitive tests and had a higher prevalence of DSM-III-R dementia. Poorer performance of men in realistic occupations was not entirely due to a lower level of education: there were no differences between occupational groups in rate of cognitive decline. Cross-sectional occupational differences on cognitive tests and in dementia prevalence are due to differences in pre-morbid ability rather than to differences in rate of cognitive decline. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990111001 A |
| Classmark | BC: XM: D6: EA: 49: DA: 4C: 3J: 7YA |
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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