01 Mar State of Cognition and Self Perceived Health Are Good Predictors of Mortality

Posted at 19:46h in Author Interviews, Social Issues by

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Stephen Aichele PhD University of Geneva in Switzerland

Dr. Stephen Aichele

Stephen Aichele PhD
University of Geneva in Switzerland

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Aichele: The study was initiated over 30 years ago by professor Patrick Rabbitt (U. Oxford), who sought to investigate age-related changes in health, lifestyle, and cognitive abilities in more than 6000 residents of Greater Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Our most recent findings show that two psychological variables, lower self-rated health and age-related decrements in mental processing speed, appear to be especially important indicators of elevated mortality risk in middle-age and older adults.

MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Aichele: To our knowledge, this work represents the most comprehensive account to date of the comparative and cumulative influence of diverse risk factors, including longitudinal measures of cognitive performance, on mortality outcomes in middle-aged and older adults. The take-home message is that people’s self-perceived health at any given point in time, and age-related changes in their mental processing speed, can be more telling of their overall health status than more commonly used indices (such as cardiovascular symptoms).

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Aichele: Participants in the study were relatively high-functioning, healthy individuals. It may be that other indices are more telling of elevated mortality risk in less-healthy samples, but this remains to be determined.

Citation:

Aichele, P. Rabbitt, P. Ghisletta. Think Fast, Feel Fine, Live Long: A 29-Year Study of Cognition, Health, and Survival in Middle-Aged and Older Adults. Psychological Science, 2016; DOI: 10.1177/0956797615626906

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Stephen Aichele PhD (2016). State of Cognition and Self Perceived Health Are Good Predictors of Mortality 

Last Updated on March 1, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD

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