ArticlePsychology and aging2013
Investigating terminal decline: results from a UK population-based study of aging.
Article in Psychology and aging, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- When does cognitive decline begin? A systematic review of change point studies on accelerated decline in cognitive and neurological outcomes preceding mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and death.Psychology and aging · 2018Pooled it
- Association between educational attainment and amyloid deposition across the spectrum from normal cognition to dementia: A meta-analysis.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2025Review
- Sex differences in healthy brain aging are unlikely to explain higher Alzheimer's disease prevalence in women.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Job satisfaction declines before retirement in Germany.European journal of ageing · 2024Article
- Resistance and Resilience to Alzheimer's Disease.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2024Review
- Terminal Decline in Physical Function in Older Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2024Article
- New Evidence of Healthier Aging: Positive Cohort Effects on Verbal Fluency.Innovation in aging · 2024Article
- Cognitive dispersion and ApoEe4 genotype predict dementia diagnosis in 8-year follow-up of the oldest-old.Age and ageing · 2021Article
- A viewpoint on change point modeling for cognitive aging research: Moving from description to intervention and practice.Ageing research reviews · 2020Review
- Proportion of cognitive loss attributable to terminal decline.Neurology · 2020Article
- Effect of retirement on cognitive function: the Whitehall II cohort study.European journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- Terminal decline of episodic memory and perceptual speed in a biracial population.Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition · 2018Article
- Sample size and classification error for Bayesian change-point models with unlabelled sub-groups and incomplete follow-up.Statistical methods in medical research · 2018Article
- Decline in Memory, Visuospatial Ability, and Crystalized Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults: Normative Aging or Terminal Decline?Journal of aging research · 2017Article
- The role of cognitive reserve on terminal decline: a cross-cohort analysis from two European studies: OCTO-Twin, Sweden, and Newcastle 85+, UK.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2016Article
- I forgot when I lost my grip-strong associations between cognition and grip strength in level of performance and change across time in relation to impending death.Neurobiology of aging · 2016Article
- Educational attainment and motor burden in Parkinson's disease.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2015Article
- Mild cognitive impairment: a concept in evolution.Journal of internal medicine · 2014Article
- Cognitive and social lifestyle: links with neuropathology and cognition in late life.Acta neuropathologica · 2014Review
- Education associated with a delayed onset of terminal decline.Age and ageing · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The terminal decline hypothesis states that in the proximity of death, an individual's decline in cognitive abilities accelerates. We aimed at estimating the onset of faster rate of decline in global cognition using Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores from participants of the Cambridge City over 75 Cohort Study (CC75C), a U.K. population-based longitudinal study of aging where almost all participants have died. The random change point model fitted to MMSE scores structured as a function of distance to death allowed us to identify a potentially different onset of change in rate of decline before death for each individual in the sample. Differences in rate of change before and after the onset of change in rate of decline by sociodemographic variables were investigated. On average, the onset of a faster rate of change occurred about 7.7 years before death and varied across individuals. Our results show that most individuals experience a period of slight decline followed by a much sharper decline. Education, age at death, and cognitive impairment at study entry were identified as modifiers of rate of change before and after change in rate of decline. Gender differences were found in rate of decline in the final stages of life. Our study suggests that terminal decline is a heterogeneous process, with its onset varying between individuals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.