(1) Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the lives of older people. In this study, we examine changes in physical activity, sleep quality, and psychosocial variables among older people during COVID-19 lockdown. We build on cross-sectional studies on this topic by assessing change longitudinally. We also examined whether participant characteristics including demographic, cognitive, personality, and health variables were related to more positive or negative changes during lockdown. (2) Methods: 137 older participants (mean age 84 years) from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study were included in the analysis. They completed the same questionnaires assessing physical activity, sleep quality, mental wellbeing, social support, loneliness, neighbourhood cohesion, and memory problems before (mostly 2 years earlier) and again during national lockdown. (3) Results: On average, levels of physical activity were reduced (those doing minimal physical activity increased from 10% to 19%) and perceived social support increased during lockdown (effect size ^d_rm = 0.178). More positive change in the psychosocial and behavioural outcome variables during lockdown was associated with personality traits (greater intellect, emotional stability, and extraversion) and having a higher general cognitive ability. Participants with a history of cardiovascular disease, more symptoms of anxiety, or who lived alone were more likely to experience negative changes in the outcome variables during lockdown. (4) Discussion: These results provide further insight into the experiences of older people during the COVID-19 pandemic and could help to identify those at greatest risk of negative psychosocial or behavioural changes during this time.

Background: Little is known about effects of COVID-19 lockdown on psychosocial factors, health and lifestyle in older adults, particularly those aged over 80 years, despite the risks posed by COVID-19 to this age group.Methods: Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 members, residing mostly in Edinburgh and the surrounding Lothians regions in Scotland, mean age 84 years (SD = 0.3), responded to an online questionnaire in May 2020 (n= 190). We examined responses (experience and knowledge of COVID-19; adherence to guidance; impact on day-to-day living; social contact; self-reported physical and mental health; loneliness; and lifestyle) and relationships between previously-measured characteristics and questionnaire outcomes.Results: Four respondents experienced COVID-19; most had good COVID-19 knowledge (94.7%) and found guidance easy to understand (86.3%). There were modest declines in self-reported physical and mental health, and 48.2% did less physical activity. In multivariable regression models, adherence to guidance by leaving the house less often associated with less professional occupational class (OR = 0.71, 95%CI 0.51–0.98) and poorer self-rated general health (OR = 0.62, 95%CI 0.42–0.92). Increased internet use associated with female sex (OR = 2.32, 95%CI 1.12–4.86) and higher general cognitive ability (OR = 1.53, 95%CI 1.03–2.33). Loneliness associated with living alone (OR = 0.15, 95%CI 0.07–0.31) and greater anxiety symptoms (OR = 1.76, 95%CI 0.45–1.24). COVID-19 related stress associated with lower emotional stability scores (OR = 0.40, 95%CI 0.24–0.62). Decreased physical activity associated with less professional occupational class (OR = 1.43, 95%CI 1.04–1.96), and lower general cognitive ability (OR = 0.679, 95%CI 0.491–0.931).Conclusions: Characteristics including cognitive function, occupational class, self-rated health, anxiety, and emotional stability, may be related to risk of poorer lockdown-related psychosocial and physical outcomes.

Examining underlying neurostructural correlates of specific cognitive abilities is practically and theoretically complicated by the existence of the positive manifold (all cognitive tests positively correlate): if a brain structure is associated with a cognitive task, how much of this is uniquely related to the cognitive domain, and how much is due to covariance with all other tests across domains (captured by general cognitive functioning, also known as general intelligence, or 'g')? We quantitatively address this question by examining associations between brain structural and diffusion MRI measures (global tissue volumes, white matter hyperintensities, global white matter diffusion fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity, and FreeSurfer processed vertex-wise cortical volumes, smoothed at 20mm fwhm) with g and cognitive domains (processing speed, crystallised ability, memory, visuospatial ability). The cognitive domains were modelled using confirmatory factor analysis to derive both hierarchical and bifactor solutions using 13 cognitive tests in 697 participants from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study (mean age 72.5 years; SD = .7). Associations between the extracted cognitive factor scores for each domain and g were computed for each brain measure covarying for age, sex and intracranial volume, and corrected for false discovery rate. There were a range of significant associations between cognitive domains and global MRI brain structural measures (r range .008 to .269, p < .05). Regions implicated by vertex-wise regional cortical volume included a widespread number of medial and lateral areas of the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes. However, at both global and regional level, much of the domain-MRI associations were shared (statistically accounted for by g). Removing g-related variance from cognitive domains attenuated association magnitudes with global brain MRI measures by 27.9-59.7% (M = 46.2%), with only processing speed retaining all significant associations. At the regional cortical level, g appeared to account for the majority (range 22.1-88.4%; M = 52.8% across cognitive domains) of regional domain-specific associations. Crystallised and memory domains had almost no unique cortical correlates, whereas processing speed and visuospatial ability retained limited cortical volumetric associations. The greatest spatial overlaps across cognitive domains (as denoted by g) were present in the medial and lateral temporal, lateral parietal and lateral frontal areas.

Slowed processing speed is considered a hallmark feature of cognitive decline in cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), however, it is unclear whether SVD’s association with slowed processing might be due to its association with overall declining general cognitive ability. We quantified the total MRI-visible SVD burden of 540 members of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (age:72.6□0.7 years; 47% female). Using latent growth curve modelling, we tested associations between total SVD burden at mean age 73 and changes in general cognitive ability, processing speed, verbal memory, and visuospatial ability, measured at age 73, 76, 79 and 82. Covariates included age, sex, vascular risk, and childhood cognitive ability. In the fully-adjusted models, greater SVD burden was associated with greater declines in general cognitive ability (standardised β: -0.201; 95%CI: [-0.36, -0.04]; pFDR=0.022) and processing speed (−0.222; [-0.40, -0.04]; pFDR=0.022). SVD burden accounted for between 4 and 5% of variance in declines of general cognitive ability and processing speed. After accounting for the covariance between tests of processing speed and general cognitive ability, only SVD’s association with greater decline in general cognitive ability remained significant, prior to FDR correction (−0.222; [-0.39, -0.06]; p=0.008; pFDR=0.085). Our findings do not support the notion that SVD has a specific association with declining processing speed, independent of decline in general cognitive ability (which captures the variance shared across domains of cognitive ability). The association between SVD burden and declining general cognitive ability supports the notion of SVD as a diffuse, whole-brain disease and suggests that trials monitoring SVD-related cognitive changes should consider domain-specific changes in the context of overall, general cognitive decline.

Background: Little is known about effects of COVID-19 lockdown on psychosocial factors, health and lifestyle in older adults, particularly those aged over 80 years, despite the risks posed by COVID-19 to this age group. Methods: Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 members, mean age 84 years (SD=0.3), responded to an online questionnaire in May 2020 ( n =190). We examined responses (experience and knowledge of COVID-19; adherence to guidance; impact on day-to-day living; social contact; self-reported physical and mental health; loneliness; and lifestyle) and relationships between previously-measured characteristics and questionnaire outcomes. Results: Four respondents experienced COVID-19; most had good COVID-19 knowledge (94.7%) and found guidance easy to understand (86.3%). There were modest declines in self-reported physical and mental health, and 48.2% did less physical activity. In multivariable regression models, adherence to guidance by leaving the house less often associated with less professional occupational class (OR=0.71, 95%CI 0.51– 0.98) and poorer self-rated general health (OR=0.62, 95%CI 0.42–0.92). Increased internet use associated with female sex (OR=2.32, 95%CI 1.12–4.86) and higher general cognitive ability (OR=1.53, 95%CI 1.03–2.33). Loneliness associated with living alone (OR=0.15, 95%CI 0.07–0.31) and greater anxiety symptoms (OR=1.76, 95%CI 0.45–1.24). COVID-19 related stress associated with lower emotional stability scores (OR=0.40, 95%CI 0.24–0.62). Decreased physical activity associated with less professional occupational class (OR=1.43, 95%CI 1.04–1.96), and lower general cognitive ability (OR=0.679, 95%CI 0.491–0.931). Conclusions: Characteristics including cognitive function, occupational class, self-rated health, anxiety, and emotional stability, may be related to risk of poorer lockdown-related psychosocial and physical outcomes.