Complexity of lifetime occupation and cognitive performance in old age

Background Occupation is recognized as a modifiable factor related to cognitive reserve in older adults. Aims To examine the association between levels of complexity in lifelong occupations and cognitive per-formance in later life. Methods A cross-sectional study of older adult users (aged 65 or more) of a private health care plan, resi-dent in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil, and participating in the Rio de Janeiro sec-tion of the Study of Fragility in Brazilian Older Adults (FIBRA-RJ). Cognitive performance scores were obtained using the Mini-Mental State Examination. The level of complexity of their work was assessed in three domains: work with data, persons and things. Associations between the complexity of work in each domain and cognitive performance were evaluated using multivariate linear regres-sion, adjusted for socio-demographic variables and duration of occupation. Results A total of 624 older adults (94 % of the study group) performed lifelong work activities. Among those working with data, the high complexity group had cognitive performance scores 1.08 points higher (P < 0.05) than low complexity. In work with things, scores in the intermediate complexity group were 0.53 points higher (P < 0.05) than low complexity. There was no statistically significant differ-ence in the cognitive performance between levels of complexity of work with people