Protective and risk factors for cognitive decline: The role of sex and occupational status

Objective: With ageing cognitive functions become less efficient affecting daily tasks and well-being. We investigate protective factors for decline focusing on the role of sex and occupation. Method: the Mini Mental State Examination (Folstein et al., 1975) and the Prose Memory Test (Mondini et al., 2003) were administered to 3081 older adults with the purpose of understanding the role of Age, Sex, Education, Occupation, and Comorbidities. Results: A negative effect of Age and a positive effect of Education with an interaction between Education and Sex were found: men performed better than women when Education was low, but women performed better than men when Education was high. A protective effect of Occupation was also found: "Manager" showed a better performance than other types of occupations, while manual workers had the worst outcomes. Discussion: The protective role of higher professional positions and the risks of manual and agricultural occupations are underlined. Our study gives new insights into the limited research on the effects of occupation on cognition in ageing.