title: Occupational cognitive requirements and late-life cognitive aging.
abstract: To examine whether occupational cognitive requirements, as a marker of adulthood cognitive activity, are associated with late-life cognition and cognitive decline.
  
  
  
  Main lifetime occupation information for 7,637 participants aged >65 years of the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) was linked with standardized data on worker attributes and job characteristics from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). Ratings of cognitive processes required in 10 work-related tasks were used to create a summary measure of occupational cognitive requirements (possible range 0-7). Multivariable-adjusted linear mixed models were used to estimate the association of occupational cognitive requirements score (OCRS) with cognitive function and rate of cognitive decline.
  
  
  
  Higher OCRS corresponded to significantly better late-life cognitive performance at baseline in 1993 (p < 0.001) and to slower decline in global cognitive function over time (p = 0.004). Within a genotyped subsample (n = 4,104), the associations of OCRS with rate of cognitive decline did not differ significantly by APOE ε4 carriership (p = 0.11).
  
  
  
  Findings suggest that occupational cognitive requirements are associated with better cognition and a slower rate of cognitive decline in older age. Adulthood cognitive activity may contribute to cognitive reserve in late life.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology (L.R.P., C.F.M.d.L.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Department of Internal Medicine (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Institute for Healthy Aging (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (R.S.W.), and Departments of Neurological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences (R.S.W.), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; and Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine (U.B.), University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. lpool@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Lindsay R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Pool
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology (L.R.P., C.F.M.d.L.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Department of Internal Medicine (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Institute for Healthy Aging (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (R.S.W.), and Departments of Neurological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences (R.S.W.), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; and Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine (U.B.), University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weuve
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology (L.R.P., C.F.M.d.L.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Department of Internal Medicine (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Institute for Healthy Aging (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (R.S.W.), and Departments of Neurological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences (R.S.W.), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; and Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine (U.B.), University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology (L.R.P., C.F.M.d.L.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Department of Internal Medicine (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Institute for Healthy Aging (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (R.S.W.), and Departments of Neurological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences (R.S.W.), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; and Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine (U.B.), University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bültmann
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology (L.R.P., C.F.M.d.L.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Department of Internal Medicine (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Institute for Healthy Aging (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (R.S.W.), and Departments of Neurological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences (R.S.W.), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; and Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine (U.B.), University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Denis A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology (L.R.P., C.F.M.d.L.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Department of Internal Medicine (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Institute for Healthy Aging (J.W., D.A.E.), Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (R.S.W.), and Departments of Neurological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences (R.S.W.), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL; and Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine (U.B.), University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carlos F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Mendes de Leon
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D000066492:Cognitive Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires