Measuring cognitive performance in way that incorporates the concept of active and healthy ageing (AHA)

• Published in: Maturitas Vol. 125; pp. 27 - 32
• Main Authors: Stute, Petra, von Bergen, Mélanie, Bitterlich, Norman, Meissner, Florian, von Wolff, Michael, Poethig, Dagmar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.07.2019
• Subjects: Bern Cohort Study 2014; Bio-functional age; Bio-functional status; Cognition; Disability and health (ICF); European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA); International classification of functioning; Inventar der Gedächtnisdiagnostik (IGD); Inventar der Gedächtnisdiagnostik (IGD); Bern Cohort Study 2014; Bio-functional age; Bio-functional status; Cognition; European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA); International classification of functioning; Disability and health (ICF)
• ISSN: 0378-5122; 1873-4111; 1873-4111
• DOI: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.03.018

•The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) is structured into six action groups.•Action group A3 comprises prevention, early diagnosis and management of physical and cognitive frailty and functional decline.•ICF-based biofunctional status (BFS)/biofunctional age (BFA) assessment tool with physical, mental-cognitive, emotional, social domains.•Ratings in the mental-cognitive domain of the assessment tool correlated with scores on a validated cognitive questionnaire.•The assessment tool, including its cognitive-mental function subdomain, meets the needs of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA). To demonstrate that the mental-cognitive domain of the validated generic bio-functional status (BFS)/bio-functional age (BFA) assessment tool reflects cognitive performance, and so meets the needs of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA). Monocenter, cross-sectional, observational, non-interventional trial (Bern Cohort Study 2014, BeCS-14) (Cantonal Ethics Committee, KEK-BE 023112). Main outcome measures: Ratings on the mental-cognitive BFS domain and on a validated cognitive performance test battery (Inventar der Gedächtnisdiagnostik; IGD) in 47 healthy, educated, middle-class, midlife men and women. Mean cognitive performance was average in younger, and higher in better-educated individuals. Participants’ BFA was 8.9 ± 6.6 year-equivalents below their chronological age. Subjects who performed better in the IGD (sub)domains also performed better in the BFS cognitive-mental function subdomain. Correlation analysis of the ratings in the BFS cognitive-mental function subdomain and total score on the IGD revealed that the highest correlations were achieved by the BFS parameters cognitive switching capability (r=−0.56, p < 0.001), strategic thinking (r=−0.49, p < 0.001), changeover capability (r=−0.50, p < 0.001) and stepping-stone-maze test (r=−0.51, p < 0.001). Ratings on the BFS cognitive-mental function subdomain correlated well with scores on a validated questionnaire for cognition assessment, the IGD. Therefore, the BFS/BFA assessment tool meets the needs of the EIP-AHA.