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Effects of Cigarette Smoking History on Cognitive Functioning in Healthy Older Adults

Received November 12, 2003; revised March 24, March 31, 2004; accepted March 31, 2004. From the Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA (JR), the Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and the Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute (KB,IL), and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (DW). Send correspondence to Jill Razani, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8255. e-mail: jill.razani{at}csun.edu
© 2004 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry

Objective: The authors assessed the unique effect of smoking history on cognitive functioning after adjusting for demographic factors such as age, education, and gender, and presence of vascular illness. Methods: A sample of 127 healthy older adults (29 men, 98 women) between the ages of 47 and 83 (mean: 66.9) were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Information regarding risk for vascular illness was assessed with a detailed self-report history and/or medical examination. Smoking history was gathered with a self-report questionnaire, and a composite score reflecting amount and duration of cigarette use was computed. From this composite score, three smoking groups were created: None-Light, Moderate, and Heavy smokers. Results: Analyses of covariance, using age, education, gender, and vascular status as the covariates, revealed that the heavy smokers performed significantly poorer than the other groups on two scores from a test assessing executive function/problem-solving (Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test), but not on any of the other cognitive tests. Conclusions: Consistent with previous findings, smoking history did not appear to have deleterious effects on most cognitive domains. Heavy smoking history, however, did appear to affect performance on a measure of executive functioning.

Key Words: Cognition • Cigarette Smoking

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