The Canadian longitudinal study on aging as a platform for exploring cognition in an aging population

Abstract

Objective: We present descriptive information on the cognitive measures used in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Comprehensive Cohort, relate this to information on these measures in the extant literature, and identify key considerations for their use in research and clinical practice.

Method: The CLSA Comprehensive Cohort is composed of 30,097 participants aged 45–85 years at baseline who provided a broad range of sociodemographic, physical, social, and psychological health information via questionnaire and took part in detailed physical and cognitive assessments. Cognitive measures included: the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test – immediate and 5-min delayed recall, Animal Fluency, Mental Alternation Test (MAT), Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), Stroop Test – Victoria Version, Miami Prospective Memory Test (MPMT), and a Choice Reaction Time (CRT) task.

Results: CLSA Comprehensive Cohort sample sizes were far larger than previous studies, and performances on the cognitive measures were similar to comparable groups. Within the CLSA Comprehensive Cohort, main effects of age were observed for all cognitive measures, and main effects of language were observed for all measures except the CRT. Interaction effects (language × age) were observed for the MAT, MPMT Event-based score, all time scores on the Stroop Test, and most COWAT scores. Main effects of education were observed for all measures except for the MPMT Time score in the French sample, and interaction effects (age × education) were observed for the RAVLT (immediate and delayed) for the English sample and the Stroop Dot time for the French sample.

Conclusion: This examination of the cognitive measures used in the CLSA Comprehensive Cohort lends support to their use in large studies of health and aging. We propose further exploration of the cognitive measures within the CLSA to make this information relevant to and available for clinical practice.

Keywords:

• Cognition
• older adults
• CLSA
• population-based
• language

Acknowledgment

This research was made possible using the data collected by the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is provided by the Government of Canada through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) under grant reference: LSA 9447 and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. This research has been conducted using the CLSA dataset [Baseline Comprehensive Data set version 2.0], under Application Number [150101]. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. The preparation of this manuscript was partially supported by funding provided by Alzheimer Society of Canada (grant number 17-29) and the Pacific Alzheimer Research Foundation. Support was provided for the second author (LG) by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator award and the McLaughlin Foundation Professorship in Population and Public Health.