Research Article

Cognitively Stimulating Activities: Effects on Cognition across Four Studies with up to 21 Years of Longitudinal Data

Table 2

LBLS participant characteristics.

Year of testing
MeasureBaselineYear 3Year 6Year 9
( 𝑛 = 5 6 1 )( 𝑛 = 2 9 2 )( 𝑛 = 1 4 4 )( 𝑛 = 1 0 1 )

Retention from previous testing (%)52.049.370.1
Age [M (SD)]73.7 (9.2)75.4 (8.7)75.1 (8.0)76.1 (7.1)
Education [M (SD)]13.7 (3.0)13.9 (2.8)14.2 (2.7)14.2 (2.7)
Sex, female [ 𝑛 (%)]285 (51)146 (50)70 (49)51 (51)
Reasoning [M (SD)]22.3 (11.7)23.9 (11.5)25.4 (11.6)25.2 (11.1)
Fluency [M (SD)]32.4 (11.6)33.7 (11.1)33.3 (13.3)34.4 (11.7)
Memory [M (SD)]11.4 (4.0)11.6 (4.3)11.6 (4.5)11.2 (4.6)
Semantic knowledge [M (SD)]38.5 (10.3)39.5 (9.6)40.7 (9.0)39.7 (9.8)
Cognitive activity [M (SD)]2.5 (1.3)2.8 (1.4)2.7 (1.3)2.6 (1.3)
Activity change [M (SD)]0.2 (1.3)0.2 (1.4)−0.2 (1.3)

M: mean; SD: standard deviation. The theoretical ranges for each measure with a defined upper limit are as follows: education = 0–20, reasoning = 0–30, memory = 0–20, semantic knowledge = 0–36, and cognitive activity = 0–6.