Late life cognition among men: a life course perspective on psychosocial experience

This report assesses associations between trajectories of psychosocial experience over the life course and cognitive function in late life men. Survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Older Men, a community sample of 1835 United States men aged 45-59 years in 1966, are used to explore the cognitive effects of personality (locus of control) and emotion (affect) as these attributes evolve from middle age to late life. Locus of control is very stable over time, whereas negative and positive affect fluctuate. Inverse relationships are found between cognitive function and external locus of control, enduring negative affect, and the absence of positive affect. Levels of education also moderate these effects. Low educational attainment appears to intensify the risk for poor cognitive function associated with mixed internal-external locus of control and poor emotional state over time. The connection between education, usually completed early in the life course, and late life cognitive outcomes emphasizes the importance of promoting educational attainment among young people. Among older men with low educational attainment, the identification of mood disorders and personality attributes that negatively impact cognition may lead to the development of appropriate interventions.