Smoking, drinking, and other life style factors and cognitive function in men in the Caerphilly cohort

Study objectives-To examine the cognitive function in a large, ongoing coho rt study of older men, and to identify associations with social and lifesty le factors. Design-A cross sectional study of cognitive function was conducted within t he Caerphilly Prospective Study of Heart Disease and stroke. Setting-The Caerphilly Study was originally set up in 1979-83 when the men were 45-59 years of age. Extensive data are available on a wide range of li festyle and other factors of possible relevance to cognitive decline. Assoc iations between some of these and cognitive function are reported. Participants-A representative sample of 1870 men aged 55-59 years. Main results-Age, social class, medication, and mood were found to be power ful determinants of performance. Self report data on the involvement of the men in leisure pursuits were examined by factor analysis. This indicated t hat the more intellectual leisure pursuits are the most strongly linked wit h performance. A measure of social contact showed a weak positive associati on with the test scores. Current cigarette smokers gave lower test cognitiv e function scores than either men who had never smoked, or ex-smokers. Ther e was however no evidence of any gradient in function with the total lifeti me consumption of tobacco. The disparity between these two data sets sugges ts that there had been prior selection of men who had originally started to smoke, but more particularly selection of those who later quit smoking. Th ere was no significant association between alcohol consumption and cognitiv e function, though ex-drinkers had markedly lower test scores than either c urrent drinkers or men who had never drunk alcohol. This seemed probably to be a consequence of an high prevalence of illness among the ex-drinkers. Conclusions-Age and social class show strong associations with cognitive fu nction. Leisure persuits and social contact are also both positively associ ated. Neither tobacco smoking nor the drinking of alcohol seem to be associ ated with cognitive function, though there is evidence suggestive of self s election of both men who had never smoked and ex-smokers.