Memories of American vs British seniors

[Skrej]

Interesting. One wouldn't think nationality would be a factor, it's got to be something in the cultures that makes the difference.

Original article is here .

US seniors bash Brits in memory test

PARIS (AFP) – American seniors 'remember when' long after their British counterparts have forgotten what day of the week it is, researchers report in a study released this week.

The trans-Atlantic gap, as measured in a "memory and awareness test," amounted to a decade of aging, according to the survey of 8,299 Americans and 5,276 Britons over 65.

75-year-olds in the US, in other words, scored far better than their sun-starved age peers, and equalled the performance of Brits 10 years younger, according to the study, published in London-based journal BMC Geriatrics.

The tests measured instant and delayed recall of a series of ten common nouns such as "tree", "village," "baby," etc. Participants were also asked what day, date, month and year it was.

On a 24-point scale, US subjects scored 12.8 on average, compared to 11.4 for the English.

"The better cognitive performance of US adults was actually quite surprising," said Kenneth Langa, a researcher at the University of Michigan and the study's lead author.

"US adults have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, which are generally associated with cognitive decline and poorer mental function."

Such risk factors include smoking tobacco, obesity, physical inactivity and high blood pressure.

Britain has the highest rate of obesity in Europe, but Americans tip the scales even more.

Langa speculated that higher education and income levels in the United States may have compensated, resulting in sharper minds going into old age.

He also noted that American adults report significantly lower levels of depression than their British counterparts, a factor than can also affect cognitive skills.
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[Jamie (K)]

It would be interesting to know how American seniors would have scored in the 1950s or 1960s. I'll bet they would have been worse. Americans today don't get "old" as fast as they used to.

I have two theories about why the difference might exist.

The weaker of my two theories is that Americans' private healthcare is better than the British state system, and so they get more and better treatment when they need it.

The theory I'm more confident of is that Americans have to learn things all their lives, so people's memories stay "in practice" longer. The labor market here is so fluid that many Americans have to reinvent themselves professionally every decade or so. This means they're studying something most of their lives, and the educational system is open to people of any age. With the economy weak right now, there are lots of Americans in their 50s and even their 60s studying for new careers.

Some people this age start retraining just because they want to. Last week at one of the local colleges I met a lady who is almost 50 and has gone back to college. She has a secure job in a factory that she could ride out to retirement, but she's always dreamed of being a nurse. So now she's starting college all over again, hoping to train herself for a new career.

And I guarantee you that among American students, these people in their 50s are MUCH better than the kids in their 20s.

One thing I noticed in Central Europe when I was a teacher there is that people decide much earlier in life that they have an "old brain" and can't learn well. Americans might start talking about this in their late 50s -- or maybe never -- while many Europeans decide their brains are "old" when they're as young as their mid-30s. If a person decides at 34 that he's "too old" to learn anything, he'll stop exercising his brain, and by the time he's 74 he could be quite stupid compared to other people his age.

[SkiIucK]