Study Finds Older Adults Spending More Time in Cognitive Good Health

A new study presented at the Population Association of America's annual meeting found seniors can still maintain an overall sense of well-being even though cognitive challenges arise in a more compressed time frame in later life, reports the Washington Post . After 65, people can spend over 12 years in good cognitive health, on average, with that span increasing over the last 10 years. More years of education, which is tied to better physical and brain health, appears to be contributing to this trend. About 20 percent to 25 percent of seniors have mild cognitive impairment while about 10 percent have dementia, says the University of Michigan's Dr. Kenneth Langa. Risks increase with greater age, and the portion of the population affected is significantly higher for people over 85. A study from the Rand Corp. and the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that 10.5 percent of U.S. adults age 65 and older had dementia in 2012, versus 12 percent in 2000. However, gains are unequally distributed and college graduates can expect to spend more than 80 percent of their lifetime after age 65 with good cognition, according to research from the University of Southern California and the University of Texas at Austin. This falls to less than 50 percent for those who fail to complete high school.