" Does Cognitive Function Increase over Time in the Healthy Elderly ? "
Les auteurs qui ont conduit une étude, comparant 2 groupes de sujets sains et âgés en 1991 et en 2008, suggèrent que les normes aux tests devraient être revues par décennie, vue l'amélioration des performances cognitives. Ils concluent que cette amélioration est due à l’amélioration de l’espérance de vie et de la croissance des performances des plus jeunes...
AUTEURS
Jocelyne de Rotrou
Affiliations: Service de Gérontologie, Hôpital Broca, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France, Equipe d’Accueil 4468, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Ya-Huei Wu, Affiliations: Service de Gérontologie, Hôpital Broca, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France, Equipe d’Accueil 4468, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Jean-Bernard Mabire, Affiliations: Service de Gérontologie, Hôpital Broca, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France, Equipe d’Accueil 4430, Université Paris Ouest, Nanterre, France
Florence Moulin, Affiliations: Service de Gérontologie, Hôpital Broca, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France, Equipe d’Accueil 4468, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Laura W. de Jong, Affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Anne-Sophie Rigaud, Affiliations: Service de Gérontologie, Hôpital Broca, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France, Equipe d’Accueil 4468, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Olivier Hanon, Affiliations: Service de Gérontologie, Hôpital Broca, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France, Equipe d’Accueil 4468, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Jean-Sebastien Vidal
Affiliations: Service de Gérontologie, Hôpital Broca, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France, Equipe d’Accueil 4468, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
ABSTRACT
Background
In dementia screening, most studies have focused on early cognitive impairment by comparing patients suffering from mild dementia or mild cognitive impairment with normal subjects. Few studies have focused on modifications over time of the cognitive function in the healthy elderly. The objective of the present study was to analyze the cognitive function changes of two different samples, born > 15 years apart.
Method
A first sample of 204 cognitively normal participants was recruited in the memory clinic of Broca hospital between 1991 and 1997. A second sample of 177 cognitively normal participants was recruited in 2008–2009 in the same institution. Both samples were from the same districts of Paris and were assessed with the same neuropsychological test battery. Mean cognitive test scores were compared between 1991 and 2008 samples, between < 80 years old and ≥ 80 years old in 1991 and 2008 samples, and finally between subjects < 80 year old of 1991 sample and subjects ≥ 80 years old of the 2008 sample. Means were compared with T-tests stratified on gender, age-groups and educational level.
Results
Cognitive scores were significantly higher in the 2008 sample. Participants < 80 years old outperformed those ≥ 80 in both samples. However, participants < 80 years old in 1991 sample and subjects ≥ 80 in the 2008 sample, born on average in 1923, performed mostly identically.
Conclusion
This study showed a significant increase of cognitive scores over time. Further, contemporary octogenarians in the later sample performed like septuagenarians in the former sample. These findings might be consistent with the increase in life expectancy and life span in good health. The study highlights the necessity to take into account factors which may contaminate and artificially inflate the age-related differences in favor of younger to the older adults.
Citation : de Rotrou J, Wu Y-H, Mabire J-B, Moulin F, de Jong LW, et al. (2013) Does Cognitive Function Increase over Time in the Healthy Elderly? PLoS ONE 8(11): e78646. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078646
Editor: Antony Bayer, Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Received: June 7, 2013; Accepted: September 15, 2013; Published: November 11, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 de Rotrou et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Published: November 11, 20
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Hommage à Martial Van der Linden
