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Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
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Performance Under Fire: Older Adult Cognitive Risks and Protections Under Heat Strain
Su Hyun Shin1, Susan Lee Walker1, Hyunjung Ji2
1Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
The Gerontologist
|August 21, 2024
Summary
Extreme heat negatively impacts older adults' fluid intelligence. Protective factors like education and physical activity can mitigate these effects, promoting cognitive health in aging populations.
Area of Science:
- Environmental gerontology
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Public health
Background:
- Extreme heat events disproportionately affect older adults.
- Research on heat stress and older adult cognition is limited.
- A social-ecological model is employed to examine risk/protective factors.
Purpose of the Study:
- Examine the relationship between risk/protective factors and heat strain on older adult cognition.
- Investigate how extreme heat impacts cognitive function in older adults.
- Identify modifiable behaviors that build resilience.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Health and Retirement Study data (1996-2016) for adults aged 50+.
- Employed individual-fixed effects models to assess cognition changes (fluid and crystallized intelligence) due to extreme heat.
- Examined interactions between extreme heat and factors like education, physical activity, social engagement, and Alzheimer's genetic risk.
Main Results:
- Extreme heat days correlated with reduced fluid intelligence scores, but not crystallized intelligence.
- Educational attainment, mild physical activity, and social contact with children moderated the impact of heat on fluid intelligence.
- Alzheimer's disease polygenic scores moderated the relationship between extreme heat and crystallized intelligence.
Conclusions:
- Increasing extreme heat events necessitate policies to enhance older adult resilience.
- Promoting identified protective behaviors can improve cognitive health in older adults.
- Findings support interventions for healthier aging populations facing climate change.
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