Smoking could be most important factor affecting cognition with age: Study

According to a study, individuals who smoke might encounter a decline of up to 85% in their cognitive abilities, such as memory and speech, in comparison to non-smokers. Researchers examined 16 different lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, alcohol consumption, and social interactions, and discovered that smoking habits could have the greatest impact on the rate at which cognition diminishes with age. "Our findings suggest that among the healthy behaviours we examined, not smoking may be among the most important in terms of maintaining cognitive function," Mikaela Bloomberg from University College London, UK, and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications, said. According to the study, individuals who smoked and led a less social lifestyle experienced a significantly faster decline in cognitive skills over a 10-year period, with up to an 85% higher rate of decline compared to non-smokers. "Our study is observational so cannot definitively establish cause and effect, but it suggests smoking might be a particularly important factor influencing the rate of cognitive ageing," Bloomberg said.