Complex Jobs Protect Mental Health
A new research reveals that complex jobs - which require a lot of difficult analysis or social interactions - like management and teaching may help protect the brain from mental decline.
A team of scientists at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh stated that their latest findings in the medical journal Neurology show how the complexity of one's job leads to higher I.Q levels.
As many as 1066 Scottish people aged between 70 and 76 years took the test. This was the second part of the Scottish mental Survey. In the first part, the participants had got their I.Q. levels tested at the age of 11, in the year 1947. The two scores were compared.
"These results suggest that more stimulating work environments may help people retain their thinking skills, and that this might be observed years after they have retired. Our findings have helped to identify the kinds of job demands that preserve memory and thinking later on," said study author Alan J Gow, from Heriot-Watt University and the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology in Edinburgh, Scotland, Free Malaysia Today reports.
The tests included in the study were designed to measure memory, processing speed and general thinking ability. The participants also had to fill a questionnaire based on their working life, BBC reports.
The study revealed that the ones whose jobs required using complex skills like dealing with data or people had scored better in the memory and thinking tests. The ones who scored poorly were those who indulged in less mentally intense jobs such as factory workers, bookbinders or carpet layers.
