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Growing Old with Two Languages: Effects of Bilingualism on Cognitive Aging
Edited by Ellen Bialystok and Margot D. Sullivan
[Studies in Bilingualism 53] 2017
► pp. 205–218

Chapter 10
The effect of language skills on dementia in a Swedish longitudinal cohort

| Umeå University | Cardiff University
| Umeå University
| Umeå University
| Stockholm University

Recent findings indicate that bilingualism delay the onset of dementia. Using data from the Betula longitudinal cohort study on memory, health and aging (www​.betula​.su​.se) the issue of a possible protective effect of bilingualism was addressed.

Monolingual (n = 736) and bilingual (n = 82) participants (≥ 60 years) without dementia at inclusion were followed for incident dementia over a time-period up to 10 years. In total, 112 participants developed dementia. Analyses were performed with Cox proportional hazards regression adjusted for age, sex, and presence/absence of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 allele, with dementia outcome as the dependent variable.

Results showed no delayed onset of dementia in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, because of the findings from a study using participants from the same population showing beneficial longitudinal effects of bilingualism on episodic memory; we argue that our results may depend on the frequency of use of the second language after retirement.

Keywords: Bilingualism, Dementia, Longitudinal design, Aging, Cognitive reserve
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Study population
    • 2.2Participants
    • 2.3Measures
      • 2.3.1Language history questionnaire
      • 2.3.2Dementia
      • 2.3.3Potential confounders
    • 2.4Statistical analysis
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.53.10lju
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