Predictive Factors for Verbal Memory Performance Over Decades of Aging: Data from the Women's Healthy Ageing Project
Section snippets
Participants
We studied participants enrolled in the Women's Healthy Ageing Project (WHAP), a longitudinal prospective population study of 438 women aged 45–55 years. The original cohort of 2,001 women were identified by random population sampling32 conducted by the Roy Morgan Centre in 1990 and took part in a cross-sectional study.33 Those women who met inclusion criteria (having a uterus and at least one ovary, menstruating, and not on hormone replacement therapy) were invited to participate in the
Results
A total of 387 women (89%) had at least one cognitive time point and at least three fully documented visits. Characteristics of this cohort are displayed in Table 1. The 51 women who were lost to follow-up over the 22 years of the study were more likely to be less educated and suffer poorer health than those who were retained (data not shown). Likewise, those participants remaining in the cohort at the end of the study were more likely to be healthier than those who dropped out earlier in the
Discussion
Although the relationship between ageing and decrements in verbal memory is known, our study describes that modifiable risk factors that can influence the magnitude of this decline during aging. This life-course approach to the influence of modifiable risk factors on verbal memory decline in aging has shown that the most significant and persistent influence on improved memory scores observed in later life is physical activity. The most significant vascular risk factors associated with verbal
Conclusion
As global collaborations draw together around a much needed intervention, it is important to consider the timing to commence such intervention. There is no doubt that intervention is better late than never, but the results of our work indicate that an intervention after age 65 years will have missed at least 20 years of aggregate risk. Unlike the capacity of muscle and vessels to remodel and reverse atrophy and damage, neuronal cells are not nearly so versatile, with damage and cell loss
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