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Residents of the Rossmoor retirement community in Walnut Creek attend an\u00a0art class in January 2025. New research suggests many older adults maintain or improve cognitive or physical abilities over time, and that a positive mindset toward aging could be a key factor.<\/p>\n
Lea Suzuki\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
A person lawn bowls at the Rossmoor retirement community in Walnut Creek in January 2025. Measures of physical function like walking speed can improve later in life, a new study says.<\/p>\n
Lea Suzuki\/The ChronicleAbout 45% of adults 65 and older improved in memory, walking speed or both over a 12-year period, according to a study of roughly 11,000 Americans.32% improved cognition and 28% improved walking speed, while a larger share \u2014 51% and 38%, respectively \u2014 stayed the same or improved.Older adults with more positive beliefs about aging were more likely to show gains in both cognitive and physical function.<\/p>\n
Contrary to stereotypes, many older adults improve in cognitive and physical abilities in later life \u2014 and having a positive mindset about aging may play a key role, according to a recent study<\/a> by Yale researchers.<\/p>\n The findings, published last month in the journal Geriatrics, reject the common narrative that physical and cognitive declines are inevitable with aging. It found that about 45% of U.S. adults 65 and older showed improvement in cognition or walking speed, or both, in the 12-year study period.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Nearly 32% of participants improved their cognition and 28% improved their walking speed \u2014 an important indicator of physical function \u2014 according to the study, which included about 11,000 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study, a federally supported longitudinal survey of older Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n For another share of participants,\u00a0 cognition and physical function stayed the same \u2014 bringing the total to 51% who remained stable or improved in cognition, and 38% who remained stable or improved in walking speed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those with positive views and beliefs on aging were more likely to show improvement in both cognition and walking speed, the researchers found. This is in line with what\u2019s known as the stereotype embodiment theory \u2014 the idea that individuals internalize positive and negative beliefs from media and other environmental sources starting at a young age. Those beliefs become self-relevant in later life, and can predict better or worse health outcomes.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n