TY - JOUR
T1 - Age-varying relationships between physical function and cognition in older adulthood
AU - Sprague, Briana N.
AU - Phillips, Christine B.
AU - Ross, Lesley A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by cooperative agreements (U01AG14260; U01AG14263; U01AG14276; U01AG14282; U01AG14289; U01NR04507; U01NR04508) from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health. B. N. Sprague received additional support by the Joseph and Jean Britton Distinguished Graduate Fellowship through The College of Health and Human Development and The Center for Healthy Aging, The Pennsylvania State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/6/14
Y1 - 2019/6/14
N2 - Objectives: There are positive relationships between physical and cognitive function in older adulthood; however, the strength of these relationships are inconsistent across studies. Although novel statistical tools provide flexibility to explore age-related differences in relationship magnitude, such methods have not been implemented in gerontological research. This study applied such methods to examine variations in relationship magnitude between physical function and cognition in healthy older adults (N = 2,783). Method: Time-varying effects modeling (TVEM) is an extension of regression that models changes in relationships as a function of time-varying metrics like age. TVEM was used to examine if physical function (Turn 360, grip strength) predicted cognitive performance (memory, processing speed/attention, and reasoning) similarly across adults aged 65–90. Results: All associations between Turn 360 and all cognitive domains were significant and positive; however, speed of processing had significant magnitude variation across age such that the young-old and the old-old demonstrated the strongest relationships. Associations between grip strength and all cognitive domains significantly strengthened with increased age. Discussion: Results suggest that depending on the sample age, there may be inconsistencies in the relationships between physical and cognitive performance. Future research should explore these relationships longitudinally to better elucidate discrepant findings.
AB - Objectives: There are positive relationships between physical and cognitive function in older adulthood; however, the strength of these relationships are inconsistent across studies. Although novel statistical tools provide flexibility to explore age-related differences in relationship magnitude, such methods have not been implemented in gerontological research. This study applied such methods to examine variations in relationship magnitude between physical function and cognition in healthy older adults (N = 2,783). Method: Time-varying effects modeling (TVEM) is an extension of regression that models changes in relationships as a function of time-varying metrics like age. TVEM was used to examine if physical function (Turn 360, grip strength) predicted cognitive performance (memory, processing speed/attention, and reasoning) similarly across adults aged 65–90. Results: All associations between Turn 360 and all cognitive domains were significant and positive; however, speed of processing had significant magnitude variation across age such that the young-old and the old-old demonstrated the strongest relationships. Associations between grip strength and all cognitive domains significantly strengthened with increased age. Discussion: Results suggest that depending on the sample age, there may be inconsistencies in the relationships between physical and cognitive performance. Future research should explore these relationships longitudinally to better elucidate discrepant findings.
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U2 - 10.1093/geronb/gbx126
DO - 10.1093/geronb/gbx126
M3 - Article
C2 - 29121330
AN - SCOPUS:85068182403
SN - 1079-5014
VL - 74
SP - 772
EP - 784
JO - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
JF - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
IS - 5
ER -