Submission + - Researchers Find 70-Year-Olds Are Getting Smarter 1
Pickens writes: "AlphaGalileo reports that researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden have found in a forty year study of 2,000 seniors that today's 70-year-olds do far better in intelligence tests than their predecessors making it more difficult to detect dementia in its early stages. "Using the test results, we've tried to identify people who are at risk of developing dementia," says Dr. Simona Sacuiu. "While this worked well for the group of 70-year-olds born in 1901-02, the same tests didn't offer any clues about who will develop dementia in the later generation of 70-year-olds born in 1930." The study started in 1971 with an examination of 70-year-olds who were then regularly followed over a period of 30 years. The 70-year-olds born in 1930 and examined in 2000 performed better in the intelligence tests than their predecessors born in 1901-02 and examined in 1971. "The improvement can partly be explained by better pre- and neonatal care, better nutrition, higher quality of education, better treatment of high blood pressure and other vascular diseases, and not least the higher intellectual requirements of today's society, where access to advanced technology, television and the Internet has become part of everyday life," says Sacuiu."
I'm 71 and lots smarter than I was at 14. (Score:2)
More perceptive, as well. My father got smarter as we aged, too. Who would have thought.