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Examining the association between lung functioning and cognitive performance in African American adults.

Allaire JC, Tamez E, Whitfield KE

North Carolina State University, USA.

The current study examined the extent to which pulmonary functioning, as measured by average peak expiratory flow, was related to performance on seven cognitive measures. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 396 African American adults ranging in age from 22 to 89 years. RESULTS: Lung functioning was not uniquely associated with cognitive performance in the younger adults, though it emerged as a significant predictor of individual differences in performance on the Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status even after controlling for age, education, and smoking history. Biobehavioral assessments such as the one presented here appear to provide important new insights into the sources of individual differences in cognition observed in this understudied population.

Published 11 January 2007 in J Aging Health, 19(1): 106-22.
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