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Grandmother Does Know Best

June 28, 2001 -- Is grandma or grandpa more likely to win that chess game or remember your birthday?

If your answer was "grandma," you're right. So long as she hasn't succumbed to dementia or Alzheimer's disease, an elderly woman will probably have better concentration and a more powerful memory than an elderly man, according to a new study out of Holland.

"At age 85, women perform better than men [of the same age] on a number of [mental function] tests, despite their lower levels of education," says study leader Eric van Exel, PhD, who is from the department of internal medicine at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. More elderly women than men suffer from dementia, but among those with healthy minds, women have superior mental function.

The team visited every healthy, functioning, 85-year-old resident of the Dutch town of Leiden and administered a battery of standard psychological tests. Anyone with symptoms of depression, which can affect mental function, was excluded from the study.

The Dutch educational system was inequitable in the early 1900s, says Exel, so women in the study had significantly fewer years of schooling than the men did. Even so, he tells WebMD, the women were quicker at processing information and better at memory tests than the men were -- a rather surprising finding: Previous studies have suggested that having a higher level of education protects people from reduced mental functioning as they age.

So why were these 85-year-old women nearly twice as likely to have superior speed of mental functioning and better recall than the 85-year-old men?

One possible explanation "is the difference in [heart and blood vessel] disease between men and women," says Excel. "Women have less. So ... the women are biologically younger than men of the same age." It could be that the same artery-clogging plaques that lead to heart attacks, stroke, and other cardiovascular ills also impair mental function, he tells WebMD.

"This is a great preliminary hypothesis, but there are a number of factors that limit my enthusiasm," says Mark Williams, MD, professor and chief of the division of general medicine and geriatrics at University of Virginia Health System. He reviewed the report for WebMD.

For one, motivation can affect performance on tests of mental capacity, says Williams. Since 63% of the men were married, compared with only 18% of the women, "the loneliness factor could motivate the women to participate." More enthusiastic participation could potentially mean better scores.

Also, says Williams, "I'm not sure what the [findings] really mean. What do the differences in scores equate with in real life? Does it mean someone is more likely to forget a name or leave a pot on the stove? The results are probably [valid], but what does it mean?"

Exel's team is just beginning a long-term study to further investigate if there is a connection between heart disease and blood vessel disease and a decline in mental function.

Of course, just about any distinction between men and women could provide an alternative explanation for the findings, says Exel. Take the female hormone estrogen. Some researchers think it is important for mental functioning and, therefore, could be contributing to the women's superior performance. "But it's unlikely," he says, "as by age 85, these woman are well past menopause and estrogen levels have long since declined."

The findings are interesting, Williams adds, "but they shouldn't give women a smug sense of self-satisfaction or men a feeling of forgetfulness and inferiority."