Upswings in Older-Age Cognitive Ability May Not Be Universal

A growing body of evidence indicates that rates of dementia may be declining, in part because older adults' cognitive abilities, such as learning and memory functions, are better than those of older adults in the past, according to ScienceDaily . But most data have come from almost entirely white cohorts living in high-income countries, calling into question the universality of the trend. A study of a majority-black cohort, published in a special supplement to the Journal of Gerontology , found no clear upward trend in cognitive abilities among older adults. The study used data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), which has followed a total of 10,802 individuals 65 years old or older living on the south side of Chicago since 1993. The cohort is 60 percent black and 40 percent white. Participants underwent cognitive assessments in six three-year study cycles from 1993-1996 through 2010-2012. The researchers computed three measures of cognitive performance: episodic memory, perceptual speed, and a "global" measure of cognition that summarized performance on the entire battery of four tests.