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Patterns of cognitive function in aging: the Rotterdam Study

  • NEUROEPIDEMIOLOGY
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Abstract

Cognitive impairment is an important hallmark of dementia, but deterioration of cognition also occurs frequently in non-demented elderly individuals. In more than 3,000 non-demented persons, aged 45–99 years, from the population-based Rotterdam Study we studied cross-sectional age effects on cognitive function across various domains. All participants underwent an extensive cognitive test battery that tapped into processing speed, executive function, verbal fluency, verbal recall and recognition, visuospatial ability and fine motor skills. General cognitive function was assessed by the g-factor, which was derived from principal component analysis and captured 49.2 % of all variance in cognition. We found strongest associations for age with g-factor [difference in z-score −0.59 per 10 years; 95 % confidence interval (CI) −0.62 to −0.56], fine motor skill (−0.53 per 10 years; 95 % CI −0.56 to −0.50), processing speed (−0.49 per 10 years; 95 % CI −0.51 to −0.46), and visuospatial ability (−0.48 per 10 years; 95 % CI −0.51 to −0.45). In contrast, the effect size for the association between age and immediate recall was only −0.25 per 10 years (95 % CI −0.28 to −0.22), which was significantly smaller than the relation between age and fine motor skill (P < 0.001). In conclusion, in non-demented persons of 45 years and older, general cognition deteriorates with aging. More specifically, fine motor skill, processing speed and visuospatial ability, but not memory, are affected most by age.

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Acknowledgments

JN van der Geest was supported by the Princes Beatrix Fonds. The Rotterdam Study is sponsored by the Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the Municipality of Rotterdam.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Yoo Young Hoogendam, Albert Hofman & Mohammad Arfan Ikram

  2. Department of Radiology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Yoo Young Hoogendam, Aad van der Lugt & Mohammad Arfan Ikram

  3. Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Jos N. van der Geest

  4. Department of Neurology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Mohammad Arfan Ikram

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  1. Yoo Young Hoogendam
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Correspondence to Mohammad Arfan Ikram.

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Hoogendam, Y.Y., Hofman, A., van der Geest, J.N. et al. Patterns of cognitive function in aging: the Rotterdam Study. Eur J Epidemiol 29, 133–140 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-014-9885-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-014-9885-4

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