What's the secret to ageing well after 65? The answer is not exercise or diet

A Yale University study found many older adults improved in cognition, physical function, or both over time. The findings suggest positive beliefs about ageing support healthier outcomes in later life.

In Short

• Cognitive health used global performance scores, while walking speed measured physical function
• About 32% improved cognitively, and 28% recorded gains in mobility
• Positive beliefs predicted better outcomes despite illness, depression and education differences

Growing older is usually portrayed as a gradual and unavoidable decline in memory, mobility and overall health. But a new study from Yale University is challenging that assumption, finding that many older adults actually improve physically and mentally with age, and that a positive attitude toward ageing plays a key role.

The study, published in the journal Geriatrics, analysed more than a decade of data from over 11,000 Americans aged 65 and older. Researchers found that nearly half of the participants showed measurable improvements in cognitive function, physical function, or both over time.

NOT EXERCISE OR DIET

"Many people equate ageing with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities," said lead author Dr Becca R. Levy, professor of social and behavioural sciences at the Yale School of Public Health.

"What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it's common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process," she said.

The researchers used data from the long-running Health and Retirement Study, tracking participants for up to 12 years. Cognitive health was assessed through a global performance measure, while physical function was measured using walking speed, a marker often referred to by geriatricians as a "vital sign" because of its strong links to health outcomes.

The findings revealed that 45% of participants improved in at least one of the two domains. Around 32% showed cognitive improvement, while 28% improved physically. When researchers also included those whose cognitive abilities remained stable rather than declining, more than half of participants defied the stereotype that ageing inevitably leads to worsening mental function.

"If you average everyone together, you see decline. But when you look at individual trajectories, you uncover a very different story. A meaningful percentage of the older participants that we studied got better."

BELIEFS ABOUT AGEING

The study also identified an unexpected factor linked to these improvements: beliefs about ageing.

Participants who held more positive views about growing older at the start of the study were significantly more likely to improve in both cognition and walking speed, even after researchers accounted for age, sex, education, chronic illnesses, depression and other factors.

The findings support Dr Levy's long-standing "stereotype embodiment theory", which suggests that age-related stereotypes absorbed throughout life can eventually influence health and biological outcomes.

Previous research by Levy and colleagues has linked negative age beliefs to poorer memory, slower walking speed, higher cardiovascular risk and biological markers associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Importantly, the improvements were seen not only among people recovering from illness but also among those who started the study with normal physical and cognitive function.

The researchers say the findings offer a more hopeful view of ageing and suggest that fostering positive attitudes toward later life may be an overlooked tool for healthy ageing.

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