ABSTRACT

A limited number of studies examine cognitive aging in Black or African American older adults. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between health-related fitness metrics, education, and cognition at baseline and over a 4-year follow-up in a sample of 321 Black or African American older adults in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Physical fitness was assessed with measures of gait speed, peak expiratory flow, grip strength, and body mass index. Global cognition was assessed with an adapted version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS). Analyses of relative importance and hierarchical multiple regression were used to examine baseline cross-sectional relationships. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine prospective relationships with longitudinal cognitive status. Education was the strongest predictor of global cognition at baseline and follow-up. More years of education significantly increased the odds of maintaining cognitive status at 4-year follow-up. After accounting for education, gait speed was independently associated with baseline cognitive performance and accounted for additional variance. Grip strength, peak expiratory flow, and body mass index were not significantly associated with cognition. The results indicated that modifiable variables, including years of educational attainment and gait speed, were more strongly associated with global cognition than other modifiable variables including body mass index, grip strength, and peak expiratory flow. The lack of observed associations between other fitness variables and cognition may be attributable to the brief assessment methods implemented, which was necessitated by the large-scale, epidemiological approach of the HRS.

摘要

数量有限的研究调查了黑人或非裔美国老年人的认知衰老。本研究的目的是在健康与退休研究中以 321 名黑人或非裔美国老年人为样本，探讨基线和 4 年随访中与健康相关的健身指标、教育和认知之间的关系。 HRS）。通过步态速度、呼气峰值流量、握力和体重指数来评估身体健康。整体认知通过认知状态电话访谈 (TICS) 的改编版本进行评估。使用相对重要性分析和层次多元回归来检查基线横截面关系。使用多元逻辑回归来检查与纵向认知状态的前瞻性关系。教育是基线和随访时全球认知能力最强的预测因素。受教育年限的增加显着增加了在 4 年随访中维持认知状态的几率。考虑到教育程度后，步态速度与基线认知表现独立相关，并解释了额外的方差。握力、呼气峰流量和体重指数与认知没有显着相关。结果表明，与体重指数、握力和呼气流量峰值等其他可修改变量相比，受教育年限和步态速度等可修改变量与整体认知的相关性更强。其他健身变量与认知之间缺乏观察到的关联可能是由于所采用的简短评估方法所致，而这是 HRS 大规模流行病学方法所必需的。