Could Your Job Be Improving Your Brain Health?

Could Your Job Be Improving Your Brain Health?

The type of job you work could lead to better thinking ability and cognition in your later years, new research suggests.

Researchers found that regardless of their IQ, people who worked in more complex jobs, such as an engineer or architect, had a reduced chance of cognitive decline as they aged, according to researchers from the School of Life Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland and published in the journal Neurology.

The study involved data from a 1936 study, which included the childhood IQs of over one thousand participants in Scotland when they were 11 years old.  They then looked at the participants at the age of 70 who had completed various cognitive tests to assess their thinking ability, speed and memory.

The participants were also split into groups based on their type of profession, with those who worked in higher thinking jobs such as an architect, engineer and lawyer in one group and in another were those who had jobs which require less complicated thinking such as a typist and salesperson.

The researchers found a difference in cognitive abilities with those in the higher thinking jobs having seen a positive effect on their cognitive ability in later years. The researchers also suggest that certain other lifestyle factors such as physical activity and social networks could help in predicting cognitive ability later on in life.

Photo credit: Emily frost/Shutterstock

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