| dc.description.abstract | Age, sex, and alcohol use have been identified as factors that influence cognition. The present
study aimed to replicate and extend these findings by examining the effects of age, sex, alcohol
use, and their interactions on cognition in a large sample of older Canadian adults (N=30,097, aged
45-85). Cross-sectional data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging (collected during the
first wave of data collection between 2011 and 2015) included a cognitive test battery, allowing
for domain-specific analyses. The results supported the following hypotheses: (1) younger adults
have higher cognitive test scores than older adults, (2) women score higher than men on tasks
assessing memory and verbal fluency, and (3) alcohol use is associated with higher cognitive test
scores with a very small effect size. Small interactions occurred between age, sex, and levels of
alcohol use. Study limitations and small effect sizes, combined with previous evidence of
neurotoxic and other adverse effects of alcohol, suggest that the finding of a cognitive benefit of
alcohol use should be interpreted with caution. The large sample, breadth of measures and
covariates, age and sex analyses, and consistency of the findings across analyses suggest that
further longitudinal and experimental research is warranted. | en_US |
