Associations Between Functional Biological Age and Cognition Among Older Adults in Rural Bangladesh: Comparisons With Chronological Age

Objectives: We constructed a functional biological age (fBioAge) indicator by using four functional variables: grip strength, forced expiratory lung volume, visual acuity, and hearing. Our aim was to compare how chronological age (ChronAge) and fBioAge are related to cognitive abilities in older adults. Method: We used data from the Poverty and Health in Aging project, Bangladesh. Participants (N = 400) were 60+ years of age and diagnosed as nondemented. Examined cognitive abilities were four episodic memory measures (including recall and recognition), two verbal fluency indicators, two semantic knowledge, and two processing speed tasks. Results: fBioAge accounted for cognitive variance beyond that explained by ChronAge also after controlling for medical diagnoses and blood markers. Discussion: Compared with ChronAge, fBioAge was a stronger predictor of cognition during a broad part of the old adult span. fBioAge seems, in that respect, to have the potential to become a useful age indicator in future aging studies.