Yale Study Finds Many Adults 65+ Can Improve Physically and Cognitively With Age
When we say something gets better with age, we’re usually talking about wine, cheese or some other item in the food and drink category. Humans, we know — or think we know — may get wiser and more interesting in their senior years, but they do not literally improve physically or cognitively. This is just how it is—right? Actually, maybe not.
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An expansive new study from Yale University revealed that some people can and do get better both physically and cognitively after 65.
“Aging Redefined: Cognitive and Physical Improvement with Positive Age Beliefs”, authored by Becca R. Levy, a professor of public health (social and behavioral sciences) and psychology at Yale and Martin D. Slade, a research scientist at Yale, assessed more than 11,000 participants in a nationally representative longitudinal study, and found that nearly half (45.15%) of individuals aged 65 and older showed measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both, over a follow-up period of up to 12 years.
These findings are nothing short of astonishing. They could (and should) flip the entire way we think about aging on its head.
“What the study shows is that the stereotype that with age comes inevitable and continuous decline is not the case,” Levy said. “There is the possibility of improvement with age.”
Measuring Improvement In People 65+
To measure physical improvement Levy and Slade compared each participant’s walking speed at the end of the study (76.43% participants were in the study for 10 years or more) with their walking speed at the start of the study. The participants whose walking speed increased over the years were determined to have improved physically with age.
Cognitive improvement was assessed using the 27-point version of TICS, a global measure of cognition that covers a number of cognitive domains, including short-term memory, delayed recall and mathematical skills. Participants were considered to have improved cognitively if they scored higher when tested at the end of the study than they did at the beginning up to 12 years prior.
That thousands of individuals proved to have improved physically and/or cognitively in their senior years was a bit of a shock to Levy and Slade.
“If it were 15% of participants who had improved that would be impressive,” Levy said. “But it was more than 45%.”
“What the study shows is that the stereotype that with age comes inevitable and continuous decline is not the case. There is the possibility of improvement with age.”
Becca R. Levy, a professor of public health (social and behavioral sciences) and psychology at Yale UNIVERSITY
What’s The Secret To Improving With Age? Money? Good Genetics? A Healthy Diet?
What do these people who are improving with age have in common? Are they all wealthy? Do they all live in areas with healthy air, an abundance of healthy food options and good hospitals? Do they have no history of physical or cognitive decline? Are they just super lucky?
The research found that these folks do appear to have something in common and it is none of the above. What they have in common is the way they think about and perceive growing old. Participants who had positive beliefs about aging were more likely to show improvement in both cognitive and physical function.
To determine whether participants had positive age beliefs, Slade and Levy used the 5-point Likert scale, asking them whether they strongly disagreed, disagreed, agreed, strongly agreed with or felt neutral toward certain age-related statements.
“These were statements like, ‘As I get older I feel more useless,’ and ‘I am as happy now as I was when younger,’” Slade said.
Make no mistake: This is not a case of mind over matter. This study does not suggest that you can think your way out of, say, a poor prognosis, or treat a bad hip with cheerfulness. Instead, these findings indicate that feeling good about aging translates to taking actions to continuing to feel good as you age. Optimism serves as motivation.
“If you have a fall or another momentary [health] problem and you think you will get better, you have a whole lot more chance of improving than if you don’t think you will get better,” Slade said. “You’ll do the physical therapy. You’ll talk to people about what happened. You’ll adhere to treatments better and make follow-up doctor appointments.”
Having positive age beliefs means that you will take measures to have a positive aging experience. Likely you’ll eat a balanced diet, have a vibrant social life, and perhaps literally go the extra mile on your morning walk. You’ll improve because you want to improve. Life is good and getting older doesn’t change that.
Our Society Does Not Want You To Have Positive Age Beliefs
Have you noticed that even in films or books where the protagonist is over 60 and having meaningful and enlivening experiences, they’re doing so despite their age? Happy living in old(er) age is always depicted as a kind of defiance or rebellion. The doom and gloom of aging circles these blissful characters like sharks off the coast of Palm Beach County, but they’re not letting those sharks kill their vibe.
It’s pandering, boring and often grossly unbelievable. It’s also about as positive as our society gets about aging. Most of the time we’re being flooded with messaging about how bad and tragic the fact of aging is.
So though it sounds simple enough, it’s really hard to cultivate positive age beliefs in a society that is unapologetically ageist and has convinced people that it’s better to go into debt over buying anti-aging products and treatments than it is to be financially stable but visibly over 40.
We all must work toward building a society that doesn’t shun aging. That starts with paying no mind (or money) to the anti-aging beliefs that have infested all corners of our modern capitalist culture. And with flipping the conversation not only among our own minds, but with future generations who will get old someday too.
“Be aware of what your children and grandchildren are learning,” Slade said. “Talk to them about what they’re seeing on social media and ask things like, ‘Why would anyone spend $1K on anti-wrinkle treatments that come with 12 potential side effects?”
