Based on a collaborative cohort study, it was found that cognitive performance declines with age, and more rapidly with increasing age. This study uses samples from diverse ethnocultural groups and geographical regions (including Singapore); the associations varied across cohorts, suggesting that different rates of cognitive decline might contribute to the global variation in dementia prevalence.
However, the many similarities and consistent associations with education and APOE genotype indicate a need to explore how international differences in associations with other risk factors such as genetics, cardiovascular health, and lifestyle are involved.
Further research is needed to determine whether cardiovascular health, lifestyle, and other risk factors for dementia have different associations with cognitive decline in different ethnocultural groups and geographic regions.
The Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies (SLAS) cohorts are a member of the international research consortium that published this paper.
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Paper reference: Lipnicki, D. M., Crawford, J. D., Dutta, R., Thalamuthu, A., Kochan, N. A., … Ng, T. P., Gao, Q., et al. (2017). Age-related cognitive decline and associations with sex, education and apolipoprotein E genotype across ethnocultural groups and geographic regions: a collaborative cohort study. PLOS Medicine, 14(3), e1002261. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002261