Aging and Late-Life Terminal Decline in Perceptual Speed

Individual changes in perceptual speed were modeled as a conditional function of age and time-to-death. Alternative time-structured models were evaluated in a Swedish population-based, age-homogeneous sample (Gothenburg H70; N = 764) of individuals assessed at ages 70, 75, 79, 85, 88, 90, 92, 95, 97, and 99. Modeling time as proximity to death accounted better for the heterogeneity of individual changes than an age-based time structure. Time-to-death was a significant predictor of individual differences in rates of change in the age-based model but age did not significantly predict individual differences in rates of change in the model structured by proximity to death. In both the age-based and death-based time-structured models, accelerated changes prior to time of death were observed and provide support for the terminal-decline hypothesis. Identification of health-related factors and other sources of causal heterogeneity of aging-related change can make productive use of alternative time specifications ...

[1]  A. Svanborg.  Seventy-year-old people in Gothenburg a population study in an industrialized Swedish city. II. General presentation of social and medical conditions. , 2009, Acta medica Scandinavica. Supplementum.

[2]  A. Svanborg,et al.  Seventy-year-old people in Gothenburg. A population study in an industrialized Swedish city. , 2009, Acta medica Scandinavica.

[3]  Herman Buschke,et al.  Modeling Intraindividual Cognitive Change in Aging Adults: Results from the Einstein Aging Studies , 2004 .

[4]  Jason C. Allaire,et al.  Change in cognitive capabilities in the oldest old: the effects of proximity to death in genetically related individuals over a 6-year period. , 2004, Psychology and aging.

[5]  M. Sliwinski,et al.  Correlated and coupled cognitive change in older adults with and without preclinical dementia. , 2003, Psychology and aging.

[6]  Charles Hall,et al.  Modeling memory decline in older adults: the importance of preclinical dementia, attrition, and chronological age. , 2003, Psychology and aging.

[7]  D. Bennett,et al.  Terminal decline in cognitive function , 2003, Neurology.

[8]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Effects of death within 11 years on cognitive performance in old age. , 2002, Psychology and aging.

[9]  H. Bosworth,et al.  Terminal Change in Cognitive Function: An Updated Review of Longitudinal Studies , 2002, Experimental aging research.

[10]  L. Bäckman,et al.  Time to Death and Cognitive Performance , 1999 .

[11]  K. Schaie,et al.  Survival effects in cognitive function, cognitive style, and sociodemographic variables in the Seattle Longitudinal Study. , 1999, Experimental aging research.

[12]  B Johansson,et al.  The robustness of the terminal decline phenomenon: longitudinal data from the Digit-Span Memory Test. , 1989, Journal of gerontology.

[13]  C. Poser,et al.  Aging: The Universal Human Experience , 1988 .

[14]  J. Ware,et al.  Random-effects models for longitudinal data. , 1982, Biometrics.

[15]  Klaus F. Riegel,et al.  Development, Drop, and Death. , 1972 .

[16]  M. Sliwinski,et al.  Design and Analysis of Longitudinal Studies on Aging , 2006 .

[17]  S. Berg.  Aging, behavior and terminal decline , 1996 .

[18]  S. Berg.  Intelligence and terminal decline , 1987 .

[19]  S. Berg.  Psychological functioning in 70- and 75-year-old people. A study in an industrialized city. , 1980, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica. Supplementum.

[20]  Denise C. Park,et al.  Handbook of the Psychology of Aging , 1979 .