Europe’s seniors ready for the job
In the wake of long-term advances in countries’ technology, theability to handle new job procedures of growing importance, whichincreases the importance of cognition for work performance overtime. Austrian scientists from Laxenburg and Vienna used tests like”how many animals can you name in 1 minute” and “how many of the 10mentioned names can you recall” to measure the cognitive capacitiesof senior citizens from all over the world.
Big differences
Seniors in Northern Europe perform best, followed by ContinentalEuropean countries, whereas India performs worst. The gap betweencountries in the “50 to 55 cohort” is relatively large butdecreases in cohorts of older people. This difference in seniors’performance may be explained by the fact that seniors in someregions of the world experienced better conditions during childhoodand adult life.
Better food and schooling
The most important factors are the quality of nutrition, theduration and quality of schooling. Also the lower exposure todiseases and the physical and social activity patterns play a role.It is found that in countries whose seniors already have highercognitive levels today are likely to continue to be at an advantagefor several decades to come.
