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Changes in cognition during retirement transition: the Whitehall II Cohort study

Xue, B; Cadar, D; Fleischmann, M; Stansfeld, SA; Carr, E; Kivimaki, M; McMunn, A; (2018) Changes in cognition during retirement transition: the Whitehall II Cohort study. Presented at: GSA 2018: Annual Scientific Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts. Green open access

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Abstract

We tested the ‘use it or lose it’ hypothesis in a cohort of 3,433 civil servants who participated in the Whitehall II Study, including repeated measurements of cognitive functioning up to 14 years before and 14 years after retirement. Piecewise models, centred at the year of retirement, were used to compare trajectories of verbal memory, abstract reasoning, phonemic verbal fluency, and semantic verbal fluency before and after retirement. We found that all domains of cognition declined over time. Declines in verbal memory were 38% faster after retirement compared to before, after taking account of age-related decline. Higher employment grade was protective against verbal memory decline while people were still working, but this ‘protective effect’ was lost when individuals retired, resulting in a similar rate of decline post-retirement across employment grades. We did not find a significant impact of retirement on the other cognitive domains.

Type: Conference item (Presentation)
Title: Changes in cognition during retirement transition: the Whitehall II Cohort study
Event: GSA 2018: Annual Scientific Meeting
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Dates: 14 November 2018 - 18 November 2018
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igy023.1449
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igy023.1449
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10062179
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