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Unhappiness, health and cognitive ability in old age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2007

P. Rabbitt ,
M. Lunn ,
S. Ibrahim ,
M. Cobain  and
L. McInnes
P. Rabbitt*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Department of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA, Australia
M. Lunn
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
S. Ibrahim
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
M. Cobain
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
L. McInnes
Affiliation:
Unilever PLC Research and Development, Colworth House, Sharnbrook, Bedford, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Professor P. Rabbitt, Department of Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK. (Email: patrick.rabbitt@psy.ox.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Background

To test whether scores on depression inventories on entry to a longitudinal study predict mental ability over the next 4–16 years.

Method

Associations between scores on the Beck Depression Inventory and on tests of intelligence, vocabulary and memory were analysed in 5070 volunteers aged 49–93 years after differences in prescribed drug consumption, death and drop-out, sex, socio-economic advantage and recruitment cohort effects had also been considered.

Results

On all cognitive tasks Beck scores on entry, even in the range 0–7 indicating differences in above average contentment, affected overall levels of cognitive performance but not rates of age-related cognitive decline suggesting effects of differences in life satisfaction rather than in depression.

Conclusions

A new finding is that, in old age, increments in life satisfaction are associated with better cognitive performance. Implications for interpreting associations between depression inventory scores and cognitive performance in elderly samples are discussed.

Keywords

Agecognitive abilitycontentmentdepression
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , February 2008 , pp. 229 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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