- A long running Yale-led study challenges the idea that ageing only moves in one direction.
- Nearly half of older adults improved in cognitive function, physical function or both over time.
- People with more positive beliefs about ageing were more likely to show those gains.
A Yale-led study using data from more than 11,000 older adults found that ageing is more changeable than many people assume.
Over up to 12 years of follow-up, 45% of participants improved in cognitive function, physical function or both.
Around 32% improved cognitively and 28% improved physically.
The researchers measured cognition using a global performance assessment and physical function using walking speed.
That matters because walking speed is not a trivial measure.
In geriatric medicine, it is often treated as a meaningful indicator of function, frailty and future health risk.
The most interesting part of the study was not just that improvement happened, but what predicted it.
Participants with more positive beliefs about ageing were significantly more likely to improve in both cognition and walking speed, even after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, education, chronic disease, depression and length of follow-up.
In other words, mindset was not everything, but it was not irrelevant either.
The findings fit with earlier work suggesting that negative beliefs about ageing can become internalised and affect health over time.
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This does not mean people can simply think their way out of illness or disability.
But it does suggest that later life is not always a steady slide, and that the way ageing is framed by society, clinicians and older adults themselves may shape what happens next.
