Does Cognitive Activity Promote Healthy Aging

该提案旨在支持分析妇女健康与老龄化研究II（WHAS II）中收集的数据，这是一项针对非残疾老年妇女的前瞻性观察性队列研究，旨在评估认知活动是否可能对身体和认知功能产生下游益处，以促进健康老龄化。具体目标是：1）评估认知活动对健康和身体功能组成部分的影响，社会人口统计学，健康和流动性因素协变; 2）评估高强度和中等强度认知活动的参数（频率，广度）与身体功能成分的维持或下降相关，以及;（3）开始发展一个概念框架，以解释认知活动如何直接调节身体功能的保留，或者它是否与其他调节因素（如认知或心理健康）相混淆。研究参与者是436名社区居民妇女的人口样本，基线年龄为70-80岁，1994-95年认知和身体功能良好。他们已经完成了3次全面检查，每次间隔18个月，其中包括广泛的认知活动问卷和认知，身体功能，精神和身体健康史的综合评估。WHAS II目前正在启动第二个5年随访波，以评估功能下降的自然史。从这笔赠款中获得的结果应该推动和指导更多的研究，认知活动可能在老年妇女身体功能的下降或维持中发挥的作用。如果日常生活中的认知挑战有助于维持认知和身体能力，那么它们为设计相对廉价和良性的干预措施以减少残疾和依赖风险提供了巨大的潜力。研究结果，无论是积极的还是消极的，对发展干预措施以延缓或预防老年人残疾的理论都有影响。随着我们面对老龄化社会的人口和经济现实，促进身体和认知健康的创新和具有成本效益的方法越来越重要。

This proposal seeks support to analyze data collected in the Women's Health and Aging Study II (WHAS II), a prospective, observational cohort study of non-disabled, older women to evaluate whether cognitive activity may exert downstream benefits on physical as well as cognitive functions to promote healthy aging. The specific aims are to: 1) evaluate the impact of cognitive activity on health and components of physical function, covarying for sociodemographic, health, and mobility factors; 2) evaluate those parameters of high and moderate intensity cognitive activity (frequency, breadth) associated with the maintenance of or decline in components of physical function, and; 3) to begin to develop a conceptual framework of how cognitive activity may directly mediate the reservation of physical functions, or whether it operates as a confound with other mediators, such as cognition or psychological well-being. Study participants are a population-based sample of 436 community-dwelling women who were 70-80 years of age at baseline and cognitively and physically high functioning in 1994-95. They have completed 3 comprehensive examinations, each 18 months apart, which include an extensive cognitive activity questionnaire and comprehensive assessment of cognition, physical function, and mental and physical health history. The WHAS II is now initiating a second 5-year wave of follow-up to assess the natural history of functional decline. Results obtained from this grant should propel and guide additional research on the role that cognitive activity may play in the decline or maintenance of physical functions in older women. If cognitive challenges in everyday life facilitate the maintenance of cognitive and physical abilities, they offer great potential for devising relatively inexpensive and benign interventions to reduce the risk of disability and dependency. Findings, either positive or negative, have implications for theories on the development of interventions to delay or prevent disability in aging adults. Innovative and cost-effective approaches to promoting physical and cognitive health are of growing importance as we confront the demographic and economic realities of an aging society.