Researchers find people with mild cognitive impairment more likely to regain normal cognition

Washington [US], April 16 : According to a study, people who had taken in good views about ageing from their culture as opposed to those who had taken in negative ones were 30 per cent more likely to regain normal cognition as they aged. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a frequent form of memory loss that affects older people.

The findings of the study were published in the journal, 'JAMA Network Open'.

Researchers also discovered that those with these optimistic attitudes were able to regain their cognitive abilities up to two years earlier than those with negative ageing beliefs. No matter how severe the MCI was at baseline, this cognitive recovery benefit was discovered.

"Most people assume there is no recovery from MCI, but in fact half of those who have it do recover. Little is known about why some recover while others don't. That's why we looked at positive age beliefs, to see if they would help provide an answer," said Becca Levy, professor of public health and of psychology and lead author of the study.

Levy predicted that positive age beliefs could play an important role in cognitive recovery because her previous experimental studies with older persons found that positive age beliefs reduced the stress caused by cognitive challenges, increased self-confidence about cognition, and improved cognitive performance.

The new study is the first to find evidence that a culture-based factor positive age beliefs contributes to MCI recovery. Martin Slade, a biostatistician and lecturer in internal medicine at Yale, is a co-author of the study.

Older persons in the positive age-belief group who started the study with normal cognition were less likely to develop MCI over the next 12 years than those in the negative age-belief group, regardless of their baseline age and physical health.