A MULTI-STUDY COORDINATED META-ANALYSIS OF PULMONARY FUNCTION AND COGNITION IN AGING

Substantial research has focused on aging-related dynamics among individual differences in level, change, and variation across physical and cognitive functioning. Evaluating replicability and synthesizing these findings has been limited by differences in measurements and samples, and by study design and statistical analyses confounding between-person differences with within-person changes. We used coordinated analysis to examine individual differences in level, rate of change, and occasion-specific variability in pulmonary and cognitive functioning using data from 20,482 participants across eight longitudinal studies. Results were summarized using meta-analysis. The coordinated analysis found consistent baseline associations in levels of pulmonary and cognitive functioning. Associations of rates of change and occasion-specific variability in pulmonary function and cognition were inconsistent across studies. Meta-analysis by cognitive domain showed small associations linking changes in pulmonary functioning with changes in processing speed and attention/working memory. We found limited evidence for a link between simultaneous changes in pulmonary and cognitive function.