Less than half of older adults deteriorate mentally with age, new research in the US suggests. Confounding the conventional wisdom that old age means inevitable decline, a long running study at the Yale School of Public Health showed 32% 65s actually improved mentally and 28% even became physically fitter. But including those whose faculties remained stable, less than half “avoided the commonly held expectation of cognitive deterioration”. Participants were followed for as long as 12 years. During that period, 45% showed improvement in at least one of the two areas examined. The study’s lead author Becca R. Levy, professor of social and behavioral sciences at the school, says: ““Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities. What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”
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