Ältere Erwachsene verbessern im Laufe der Zeit ihre kognitiven und körperlichen Funktionen und widerlegen damit gängige Ansichten über das Altern. Personen mit positiveren Altersvorstellungen zeigten mit deutlich größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit Verbesserungen sowohl der kognitiven Fähigkeiten als auch der Gehgeschwindigkeit, selbst nach Berücksichtigung von Faktoren wie Alter, Geschlecht und Bildung

Aging in later life is often portrayed as a steady slide toward physical and cognitive decline. But a new study by scientists at Yale University suggests an alternate narrative — that older individuals can and do improve over time, and their mindset toward aging plays a major part in their success.

Analyzing more than a decade of data from a large, nationally representative study of older Americans, lead author Dr. Becca R. Levy, PhD, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), found that nearly half of adults aged 65 and older showed measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both, over time.

The improvements were not limited to a small group of exceptional individuals and, notably, were linked to a powerful but often overlooked factor: how people think about aging itself.

“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” said Dr. Levy, an international expert on psychosocial determinants of aging health. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”

The findings are published in the journal Geriatrics.

https://www.mdpi.com/2308-3417/11/2/28