Age Trajectories of Mental and Cognitive Health From Midlife to Older Adulthood: Examination of Cohort and Gender Roles in Taiwan

Objectives: This study examined the age trajectories of mental and cognitive health from midlife to older adulthood, and how age and gender impacted mental and cognitive health change across age cohorts. Methods: Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the panel data on cognitive function, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms from the 1996-2011 Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (N = 5131). Results: Cognitive function gradually declined with chronological age (β_age = −0.041, p < 0.001), and declined faster in earlier-born cohorts (β_{age*cohort 7} = −0.168, p < 0.001). Life satisfaction showed the opposite effect with age and cohort: while earlier-born cohorts reported lower life satisfaction (β_{cohort 7} = −0.498, p < 0.05), life satisfaction increased with chronological age (β_age = 0.015, p < 0.05). Older adults reported more depressive symptoms, but this phenomenon was only significantly associated with age cohort (β_{cohort 7} = 3.530, p < 0.001). Widened differences between men and women in life satisfaction and depressive symptoms were associated with age cohort but not chronological age per se. Conclusions: Men and later-born cohorts experienced significantly better mental and cognitive health than women and earlier-born cohorts. Age- and gender-related changes in mental and cognitive health in later life should be considered within the socio-culturally contextualized birth cohort.