Adult Lifespan Cognitive Variability in the Cross-Sectional Cam-CAN Cohort.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 12(12): 15516-30, 2015 Dec 07.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26690191
ABSTRACT
This study examines variability across the age span in cognitive performance in a cross-sectional, population-based, adult lifespan cohort from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) study (n = 2680). A key question we highlight is whether using measures that are designed to detect age-related cognitive pathology may not be sensitive to, or reflective of, individual variability among younger adults. We present three issues that contribute to the debate for and against age-related increases in variability. Firstly, the need to formally define measures of central tendency and measures of variability. Secondly, in addition to the commonly addressed location-confounding (adjusting for covariates) there may exist changes in measures of variability due to confounder sub-groups. Finally, that increases in spread may be a result of floor or ceiling effects; where the measure is not sensitive enough at all ages. From the Cam-CAN study, a large population-based dataset, we demonstrate the existence of variability-confounding for the immediate episodic memory task; and show that increasing variance with age in our general cognitive measures is driven by a ceiling effect in younger age groups.
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Texto completo:
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Cognição
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Transtornos Cognitivos
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Envelhecimento Cognitivo
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Memória
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
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Incidence_studies
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Observational_studies
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Prevalence_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
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Adult
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Aged
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Aged80
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article