In this Open Access article, the authors note,
Data from 32,033 cognitively-healthy adults aged 50-104 years participating in prospective cohort studies of aging from 14 European countries were used to examine associations of lifestyle with memory and fluency decline over 10 years.
And that,
We thus show that differences in cognitive decline between lifestyles were primarily dependent on smoking status.
In terms of the context of the study, these researchers examined smoking, alcohol consumption, frequency and intensity of physical activity, and social contact. They state that they examined the impact of these behavioral elements of lifestyle on cognition (both memory and verbal fluency) for the sake of wellbeing itself, and also to help design personal interventions to slow the development of the pre-clinical phase of dementia.
It was interesting to me that these authors noted previous work in this area has found drinking alcohol is claimed to be associated with better memory than alcohol abstinence. And that upon review, these authors determined that those studies failed to recognize that alcohol abstinence was being chosen in the context and wake of health problems, and that alcohol abstinence was not, in fact, the factor producing poor cognition.
The authors simply note:
In this work, we show that associations between lifestyle and cognitive decline mostly depended on smoking habits; cognitive decline was faster for smoking lifestyles and generally similar for non-smoking lifestyles.
To get a sense of the magnitude of this effect, consider that “Differences in memory decline over 10 years between the reference lifestyle and the other lifestyles…” were examined and:
Participants who reported smoking and less-than-weekly social contact had memory scores that declined faster than the reference lifestyle, regardless of alcohol consumption or physical health habits.
While,
All but one of the non-smoking lifestyles had similar memory decline to the reference lifestyle. The exception was those who reported non-smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, less-than-weekly MVPA, and weekly social contact declined more over 10 years than the reference lifestyle.
In this area of the literature, “MVPA” stands for “moderate to vigorous physical activity”.
The authors also note that nicotine may be beneficial for cognitive function in the short run, but they contrast that with smoking contributing to cognitive decline in the long run.
Interestingly, the authors point out that combinations of health behaviors appear to be helpful. And then move from looking at population-sized samples over a decade or more to the design of individualized behavioral plans to help promote personal health for individuals.
They stress the importance of that approach (population-sized studies over many years) given that other health behaviors such as alcohol use, level of physical activity, and social contact habits do contribute to a range of other health outcomes.
It is interesting to consider these lifestyle factors (not smoking, routine socializing, avoiding heavy drinking, abstaining from alcohol, and routine physical exercise) as “behavioral determinants of health”.
Reference
Recovery Review 