Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39814743›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2025

Early-life cognitively stimulating activities and late-life cognitive function in the St. Louis Baby Tooth Later Life Health Study.

Andrea L Roberts, Xinye Qiu, Kaleigh A McAlaine, Laura T Germine, Ran S Rotem, Marc G Weisskopf

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Observational
  3. Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Andrea L RobertsDepartment of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA. aroberts@hsph.harvard.edu.
Xinye QiuDepartment of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
Kaleigh A McAlaineDepartment of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
Laura T GermineDepartment of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Ran S RotemDepartment of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
Marc G WeisskopfDepartment of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.

Funding

Translational Research Support CoreP30ES000002 · NIEHS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY (SCH OF PUBLIC HLTH) · PI JAIME ELIZABETH HART · 1985 to 2026
$44.6M
Spatial patterns of metals and metal mixtures in drinking waterP42ES030990 · NIEHS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI LU, QUAN · 2020 to 2024
$8.3M
Metals and Developmental Origins of Late Life Cognitive FunctionR01ES031943 · NIEHS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI WEISSKOPF, MARC G · 2020 to 2024
$2.6M
NIEHS NIH HHS P30 ES000002NIEHS NIH HHS P42 ES030990NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES031943NIH HHS R01-ES031943 and P42-ES030990
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Childhood cognitively stimulating activities have been associated with higher cognitive function in late life. Whether activities in early or late childhood are more salient, and whether activities are associated with specific cognitive domains is unknown. Participants retrospectively reported cognitively stimulating activities at ages 6, 12, and 18 years. 4,198 participants were aged 55 to 77 years at cognitive testing. Six tasks measured overall cognitive function, processing speed, visual short-term memory, attention, cognitive control, episodic memory, working memory, perception, vocabulary, and verbal reasoning. Cognitively stimulating activities across childhood were associated with higher cognitive scores (highest versus lowest quartile, beta = 0.18 SD, 95% CI = 0.12, 0.23). In models adjusted for activities at each age, only age 18 activities were associated with overall cognition. The association of activities with cognitive function was strongly positive at the lowest levels of activities, with little association at middle and high levels of activities. A test of crystalized intelligence was most strongly associated with activities; tests assessing processing speed, visual short-term memory, visual working memory, and sustained attention were least associated. If the associations we found are causal, increasing cognitively stimulating activities in the late teen years among those with very few activities may benefit late life cognitive health.

Indexed as

CognitionAdolescentAgedAttentionChildFemaleHumansMaleMemory, Short-TermMiddle AgedNeuropsychological TestsRetrospective Studies

Identifiers

PMID39814743
PMCPMC11736041

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.