If your job requires you to manage conflict, schedule activities, juggle multiple responsibilities, and evaluate and interpret written information, you may benefit from better cognitive function over the long term. That’s according to a new study published in the April 29 online edition of Neurology.
A challenging job may also extend survival for those diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a form of dementia that occurs at a younger age and causes language difficulties and changes in personality and behavior but not memory loss, another recent Neurology study suggests.
For the first study, Francisca S. Then, PhD, a researcher at the University of Leipzig in Germany, and her colleagues followed 1,054 people over the age of 75 for eight years. Every year and a half, the participants completed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a battery of memory and thinking tests that measure changes in memory and cognitive function. Among the subjects, 179 (16.5 percent) already had some form of dementia when they were enrolled, while another 180 (16.6 percent) developed dementia over the eight-year period.
The researchers asked the participants about their work history and classified each regularly performed work task into one of three categories: executive (scheduling activities, resolving conflicts, juggling multiple tasks), verbal (reading, evaluating, and interpreting information), and fluid (analyzing data, solving mathematic or scientific problems).
Dr. Then and her colleagues found that people whose jobs involved high levels of executive and verbal tasks had the highest memory scores on the MMSE. Participants who performed more executive and verbal tasks scored an average of two points higher than people whose jobs involved fewer of these types of tasks at the beginning of the study and five points higher at the end. On the cognitive function portion of the MMSE, those whose jobs involved high levels of executive and verbal tasks declined by an average of two points less than those whose jobs involved fewer of these tasks.
Based on these results, work environments where employees perform tasks that involve verbal intelligence and executive functions “may help to sustain good cognitive functioning,” the study authors wrote.
People diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) who have mentally challenging occupations may live longer than those in less challenging jobs, according to a Neurology study published online on April 22. FTD typically affects people under age 65, and survival ranges from six to 10 years after diagnosis.
For the study, Lauren Massimo, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Penn State College of Nursing, and her colleagues reviewed the medical charts of 83 deceased patients who received an autopsy to confirm a diagnosis of either FTD (34 patients) or Alzheimer’s disease (49 patients). The researchers calculated how long each patient survived after diagnosis and gathered information on their work history.
They classified each patient’s occupation into one of three groups based on how complex it was. For example, factory and service worker jobs were considered to be in the lowest level of complexity, trade workers and salespeople were in the intermediate level, and professional and technical workers, such as lawyers and engineers, were in the highest level.
Dr. Massimo and colleagues found that FTD patients who worked in more challenging jobs survived for longer after diagnosis (an average of 116 months, or nine and a half years) than FTD patients who worked less challenging jobs (an average of 72 months, or six years). The researchers did not find a link between occupation and survival for patients with Alzheimer’s.
The study “suggests that having a higher occupational level protects the brain from some of the effects of [FTD], allowing people to live longer after developing this disease,” Dr. Massimo said in a news release.
Why is a demanding job linked to a healthier brain? Researchers believe that performing challenging mental tasks helps build cognitive reserve, which is the brain’s ability to protect itself against injury. People with more cognitive reserve may retain their thinking and memory skills for longer and have a slower rate of cognitive decline, even if they experience the brain shrinkage (or atrophy) that occurs in normal aging.
With or without a mentally stimulating job, there are research-backed ways to keep your brain healthy and resilient.