Cigarette smoking and cognitive performance in healthy Swedish adults

Background: the relationship between cigarette smoking and cognitive function was examined in healthy Swedish adults who were participants in the Betula Prospective Cohort Study of Aging, Memory, and Health. Subjects: the data are from those individuals in the Betula study who were self-reported con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Age and ageing 2003-09, Vol.32 (5), p.548-550
Main Authors: Hill, Robert D., Nilsson, Lars-Göran, Nyberg, Lars, Bäckman, Lars
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adults
Age differences
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
cigarette
Cigarettes
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition - drug effects
cognitive
Cognitive functioning
Cohort Studies
Elderly
Humans
Memory, Short-Term - drug effects
Middle Aged
Older people
Physiological aspects
Psychological aspects
Smoking
Smoking - adverse effects
Sweden
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Summary:Background: the relationship between cigarette smoking and cognitive function was examined in healthy Swedish adults who were participants in the Betula Prospective Cohort Study of Aging, Memory, and Health. Subjects: the data are from those individuals in the Betula study who were self-reported continuous smokers contrasted to those who reported never smoking cigarettes. Design: the dependent variables were cognitive tasks that varied with respect to difficulty and the demand they placed on processing resources. Results: current smokers performed more poorly than never smokers on the more cognitively demanding tasks; namely, Block Design and free recall. Conclusions: the findings were interpreted in the light of the assumption that cigarette smoking may exert its greatest deleterious effect on those cognitive tasks that place the heaviest demands on processing resources.
ISSN:0002-0729
1468-2834
DOI:10.1093/ageing/afg067