Association between Primary Lifetime Occupation and Cognitive Function in Elderly Koreans

Abstract

Background: This study analyzes which cognitive function is preserved through primary occupation in elderly people and examines the association between cognitive ability and primary occupation with the K-MMSE test. The result from this study may suggest considerations for providing jobs for the elderly people since if we know preserved cognitive function in people after retirement, it might be helpful to provide new job that is appropriate to them. Method: This study used subjects from KLoSA aged over 55 years and the total study population is 3,985. Regression was performed to identify the association between K-MMSE sub-scores and primary occupations. Adjustment was made for confounders such as gender, age, marital status, education level, depression, smoke, and income in the analysis. Results: Manager/professionals as primary occupation showed higher scores at memory, language, and spatiality domains, while service/sales workers had high scores at language section. Elementary workers showed better scores at command domain. When this study analyzed the complexity of job with data, people, and thing, the data group showed higher scores at memory, language, and spatiality domains. Also white collar had better scores at language and spatiality section than blue collar. Conclusion: This study reflects a relationship between primary lifetime occupation and cognitive ability in elderly people. People who did mental work or treated data showed better ability at memory, language and spatiality, and workers who engaged at relationship with other people showed better ability at language. Hence, investigation of the primary lifetime occupation may suggest a standard of which cognitive ability is developed and preserved in elderly people.