Cover not available

Article published In: Aging and Bilingualism
Edited by Ellen Bialystok and Margot D. Sullivan
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 6:1/2] 2016
► pp. 190–204

Article

The effect of language skills on dementia in a Swedish longitudinal cohort

 | Umeå University | Cardiff University
 | Umeå University
 | Umeå University
 | Stockholm University
Published online: 12 February 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.14031.lju
Abstract
Recent findings indicate that bilingualism delay the onset of dementia. Using data from the Betula longitudinal cohort study on memory, health and aging (www​.betula​.su​.se) the issue of a possible protective effect of bilingualism was addressed.
Monolingual (n = 736) and bilingual (n = 82) participants (≥ 60 years) without dementia at inclusion were followed for incident dementia over a time-period up to 10 years. In total, 112 participants developed dementia. Analyses were performed with Cox proportional hazards regression adjusted for age, sex, and presence/absence of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 allele, with dementia outcome as the dependent variable.
Results showed no delayed onset of dementia in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, because of the findings from a study using participants from the same population showing beneficial longitudinal effects of bilingualism on episodic memory; we argue that our results may depend on the frequency of use of the second language after retirement.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Study population
    • 2.2Participants
    • 2.3Measures
      • 2.3.1Language history questionnaire
      • 2.3.2Dementia
      • 2.3.3Potential confounders
    • 2.4Statistical analysis
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (56)
References
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Duggirala, V., Surampudi, B., Shailaja, M., Shukla, A. K., Chaudhuri, J. R., Kaul, S. (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology, 221, 1938–1944. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Ed. Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bak, T.H. & Alladi, S. (2014). Can being bilingual affect the onset of dementia?Future Neurology, 101–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baltes, P. B., Freund, A. M., & Li, S. (2005). The psychological science of human aging. In M. L. Johnson (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of age and aging (pp. 47–71). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F.I.M., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 161, 240–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. M., Green, W. D., & Gollan, H. T. (2009). Bilingual minds. Psychological Science, 31, 89–129.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Freedman, M. (2007). Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia, 451, 459–464. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Poarch, G., Luo, L., & Craik, F. (2014). Effects of bilingualism and aging on executive function and working memory. Psychology and Aging, 291, 696–705. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chertkow, H., Whitehead, V., Phillips, N., Wolfson, C., Atherton, J., & Bergman, H. (2010). Multilingualism (but not always bilingualism) delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease evidence from a bilingual community. Alzheimer's Disease & Associated Disorders, 24 (2), 118–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corder, E. H., Saunders, A. M., Risch, N. J., Strittmatter, W., Schmechel, D., Gaskell, P., Pericak-Vance, M. V. (1994). Protective effect of apolipoprotein E type 2 allele for late onset Alzheimer disease. Nature Genetics, 71, 180–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corder, E., Saunders, A., Strittmatter, W., Schmechel, D., Gaskell, P., Small, G., et al. (1993). Gene dose of apolipoprotein E type 4 allele and the risk of Alzheimer's disease in late onset families. Science, 261(5123), 921–923. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Hernández, M., Costa-Faidella, J., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2009). On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: Now you see it, now you don’t. Cognition, 1131, 135–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 1061, 59–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cox, D.R. (1972).Regression models and life-tables. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B (Methodological), 341, 187–220. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crane, P. K., Gibbons, L. E., Arani, K., Nguyen, V., Rhoads, K., McCurry, S. M.… White, L. (2009). Midlife use of written Japanese and protection from late life dementia. Epidemiology, 201, 766–774. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crane, P. K., Gruhl, J. C., Erosheva, E. A., Gibbons, L. E., McCurry, S. M., Rhoads, K., White, L. (2010). Use of spoken and written Japanese did not protect Japanese-American men from cognitive decline in late life. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 65B1, 654–666. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Craik, F. I. M., Bialystok, E., & Freedman, M. (2010). Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease- Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology, 751, 1726–1729. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farrer, L. A., Cupples, L. A., Haines, J. L., Hyman, B. T., Kukull, W. A., Mayeux, R., et al. (1997). Effects of age, sex, and ethnicity on the association between apolipoprotein E genotype and Alzheimer disease: A meta-analysis. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 278 (16), 1349–1356. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fratiglioni, L., Paillard-Borg, S., & Winblad B. (2004). An active and socially integrated lifestyle in late life might protect against dementia. Lancet Neurology, 31, 343–353. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gollan, T.H., Salmon, D.P., Montoya, R.I., & Galasko, D.R. (2011). Degree of bilingualism predicts age of diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in low-education but not in highly educated hispanics. Neuropsychologia, 491, 3826–3830. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorelick, P. B., Scuteri, A, Black, S. E., Decarli, C., Greenberg, S. M., Iadecola, C., et al. (2011). Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia: a statement for healthcare professionals from the american heart association/american stroke association. Stroke, 421, 2672–713. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualisms: Language and Cognition, 11, 67–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hakuta, K., Bialystok, E., & Wiley, E. (2003). Critical evidence: a test of the critical-period hypothesis for second-language acquisition. Psychological Science, 141, 31–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hernandez, M., Costa, A., Fuentes, L. J., Vivas, A. B., Sebastian-Galles N. (2010). The impact of bilingualism on the executive control and orienting networks of attention. Bilingualisms: Language and Cognition, 131, 315–325. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hertzog, C., Kramer, A.F., Wilson, R.S., & Lindenberger, U. (2009). Enrichment effects on adult cognitive development: Can the functional capacity of older adults be preserved and enhanced? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 91, 1–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jellinger, K. A. (2013). Pathology and pathogenesis of vascular cognitive impairment – A critical update. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 51, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Josefsson, M., de Luna, X., Pudas, S., Nilsson, L.-G., & Nyberg, L. (2012). Genetic and lifestyle predictors of 15-year longitudinal change in episodic memory. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 601, 2308–2312. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kavé, G., Eyal, N., Shorek, A., & Cohen-Mansfield, J. (2008). Multilingualism and cognitive state in the oldest old. Psychology and Aging, 23(1), 70–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kleinbaum, D.G., & Klein, M. (2005). Survival analysis: a self-learning text. (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kousaie, S., & Phillips, N. A. (2012). Aging and bilingualism: Absence of a “bilingual advantage” in Stroop interference in a non-immigrant sample. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 651, 356–369. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, F. J., Bobb, C. S., Misra, M., & Guo, T. (2008). Language selection in bilingual speech: Evidence for inhibitory processes. Acta Psychologica, 1281, 416–430. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lawton, D. M., Gasquoine, P. G., & Weimer, A. A. (2015). Age of dementia diagnosis in community dwelling bilingual and monolingual Hispanic Americans. Cortex.
Leonard, M. K., Torres, C., Travis, K. E., Brown, T. T., Hagler, D. J. Jr., Dale, A. M., … Halgren, E. (2011) Language proficiency modulates the recruitment of non-classical language areas in bilingual. PLoS ONE, 61, e18240–e18240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ljungberg, K. J., Hansson, P., Andrès, P, Josefsson, M., & Nilsson, L-G. (2013). A Longitudinal Study of Memory Advantages in Bilinguals. PLoS ONE, 81, e73029. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luk, G., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Bilingualism is not a categorical variable: interaction between language proficiency and usage. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 251, 605–621. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McKhann, G. M., Knopman, D. S., Chertkow, H., Hyman, B.T., Jack, C. R., Kawas, C. H., et al. (2011) The diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease: recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer’s Dement, 71, 263–9. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin-Rhee, M. M., & Bialystok, E. (2008). The development of two types of inhibitory control in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualisms: Language and Cognition, 111, 81–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mechelli, A., Crinion, J. T., Noppeney, U., O’Doherty, J., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S., & Price, C. J. (2004). Neurolinguistics: Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature, 431, 757.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nilsson, L.-G., Bäckman, L., Nyberg, L., Erngrund, K., Adolfsson, R., Bucht, G., Karlsson, S., Widing, G., & Wilblad, B. (1997). The Betula prospective cohort study: Memory, health, and aging. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 41, 1–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nilsson, L.-G., Adolfsson, R., Bäckman, L., de Frias, C., Molander, B., & Nyberg, L. (2004). Betula: A Prospective Cohort Study on Memory, Health and Aging. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 11(2), 134–148. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nyberg, L., Lövden, M., Riklund, K., Lindenberger, U., & Bäckman, L. (2012). Memory aging and brain maintenance. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(5), 292–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O'Brien, J.T., Erkinjuntti, T., Reisberg, B., Roman, G., Sawada, T., Pantoni, L., Bowler, J.V., Ballard, C., DeCarli, C., Gorelick, P.B., Rockwood, K., Burns, A., Gauthier, S., & DeKosky, ST. (2003). Vascular cognitive impairment. The Lancet Neurology, 2(2), 89–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ossher, L., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. M., Murphy, K. J., Troyer, A. K. (2012). The effect of bilingualism on amnestic mild cognitive impairment. The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 681, 8–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 661: 232–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, D. C., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. (2009). The adaptive brain: aging and neurocognitive scaffolding. Annual Review of Psychology, 601, 173–196. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, D. C., Gutchess, A. H., Meade, M. L., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. L. (2007). Improving cognitive function in older adults: Nontraditional approaches. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 621, 45–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perquin, M., Vaillant, M., Schuller, A. M., Pastore, J., Dartigues, J. F., Lair, M. L., & Memo Vie Group. (2013). Lifelong exposure to multilingualism: New evidence to support cognitive reserve hypothesis. PLoS One, 81, e62030. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salthouse, T. A. (2009). Mental exercise and mental aging. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11, 68–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sachdev, P. S., & Valenzuela, M. (2009). Brain and cognitive reserve. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 171, 175–178. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schweizer, T., Ware, J., Fischer, C. E., Craik, F. M., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingualism as a contributor to cognitive reserve: Evidence from brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease. Cortex, 81, 991–996. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stern, Y. (2009). Cognitive reserve. Neuropsychologia, 471, 2015–2028. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tao, L., Marzecová, A., Taft, M., Asanowicz, D., & Wodniecka, Z. (2011). The efficiency of attentional networks in early and late bilinguals: the role of age of acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 21, 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valenzuela, M. J., & Sachdev, P. (2006). Brain reserve and dementia: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 361, 441–454. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woumans, E., Santens, P., Sieben, A., Versijpt, J., Stevens, M., & Duyck, W. (2014) Bilingualism delays clinical manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
Zahodne, L. B., Schofield, P. W., Farrell, M. T., Stern, Y., & Manly, J. J. (2014). Bilingualism does not alter cognitive decline or dementia risk among Spanish-speaking immigrants. Neuropsychology, 281, 238–246. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Y., Londos, E., Minthon, L., Wattmo, C., Liu, H. J., Aspelin, P., et al. (2008). Usefulness of computed tomography linear measurements in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. Acta Radiologica, 491, 91–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (14)

Cited by 14 other publications

Briceño, Emily M., Miguel Arce Rentería, Barbara Mendez Campos, Roshanak Mehdipanah, Wen Chang, Lisa Lewandowski-Romps, Nelda Garcia, Xavier F. Gonzales, Deborah A. Levine, Kenneth M. Langa, Steven G. Heeringa & Lewis B. Morgenstern
2024. The Association Between Bilingual Animal Naming and Memory Among Bilingual Mexican American Older Adults. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology DOI logo
Vega-Mendoza, Mariana, Daniel Eriksson Sörman, Maria Josefsson & Jessica K. Ljungberg
2024. A longitudinal study of episodic memory recall in multilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism 28:1 ► pp. 125 ff. DOI logo
Voits, Toms, Jason Rothman, Marco Calabria, Holly Robson, Naiara Aguirre, Gabriele Cattaneo, Víctor Costumero, Mireia Hernández, Montserrat Juncadella Puig, Lidón Marín-Marín, Anna Suades, Albert Costa & Christos Pliatsikas
2024. Hippocampal adaptations in Mild Cognitive Impairment patients are modulated by bilingual language experiences. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 27:2 ► pp. 263 ff. DOI logo
Yow, Wei Quin, Ka Lon Sou, Alina Clarise Wong & Julie Blaskewicz Boron
2024. A Novel Dual-Language Touch-Screen Intervention to Slow Down Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Innovation in Aging 8:7 DOI logo
Berkes, Matthias & Ellen Bialystok
2022. Bilingualism as a Contributor to Cognitive Reserve: What it Can do and What it Cannot do. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias® 37 DOI logo
Bialystok, Ellen
2021. Bilingualism: Pathway to Cognitive Reserve. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 25:5 ► pp. 355 ff. DOI logo
Bialystok, Ellen, John A. E. Anderson & John G. Grundy
2021. Interpreting cognitive decline in the face of cognitive reserve. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 11:4 ► pp. 484 ff. DOI logo
Brini, Stefano, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Jeffrey J. Hebert, Mitchell R. L. Forrest, Matti Laine, Heikki Hämäläinen, Mira Karrasch, Jeremiah J. Peiffer, Ralph N. Martins & Timothy J. Fairchild
2020. Bilingualism Is Associated with a Delayed Onset of Dementia but Not with a Lower Risk of Developing it: a Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses. Neuropsychology Review 30:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Ljungberg, Jessica K., Pia Elbe & Daniel E. Sörman
2020. The bilingual effects of linguistic distances on episodic memory and verbal fluency. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 61:2 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Nyberg, Lars, Carl-Johan Boraxbekk, Daniel Eriksson Sörman, Patrik Hansson, Agneta Herlitz, Karolina Kauppi, Jessica K. Ljungberg, Hugo Lövheim, Anders Lundquist, Annelie Nordin Adolfsson, Anna Oudin, Sara Pudas, Michael Rönnlund, Mikael Stiernstedt, Anna Sundström & Rolf Adolfsson
2020. Biological and environmental predictors of heterogeneity in neurocognitive ageing. Ageing Research Reviews 64 ► pp. 101184 ff. DOI logo
Diamond, Bruce J. & Gregory M. Shreve
2019. Translation, Interpreting, and the Bilingual Brain. In The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism, ► pp. 485 ff. DOI logo
Hack, Erica E., Joel A. Dubin, Myra A. Fernandes, Sanduni M. Costa & Suzanne L. Tyas
2019. Multilingualism and Dementia Risk: Longitudinal Analysis of the Nun Study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 71:1 ► pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Laine, Matti & Minna Lehtonen
2018. Cognitive consequences of bilingualism: where to go from here?. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 33:9 ► pp. 1205 ff. DOI logo
Sörman, Daniel Eriksson, Maria Josefsson, John E. Marsh, Patrik Hansson, Jessica K. Ljungberg & Johan J. Bolhuis
2017. Longitudinal effects of bilingualism on dual-tasking. PLOS ONE 12:12 ► pp. e0189299 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 april 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue