Previous studies indicate that occupation might affect cognitive functioning in late life. As people in low- and middle-income countries often have to work until late life, we sought to investigate if there are cognitive benefits to working later into life and whether cognitive function deteriorates after exiting the labour force. We analysed longitudinal data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative sample of Mexican adults age 50+ (N = 7,375), that assessed cognitive functioning by verbal learning, delayed recall and visual scanning. Analyses were carried out using mixed-effects modelling corrected for the influence of gender, instrumental activities of daily living, diabetes, stroke, hypertension, depression, income and marital status. Results suggest that working actively, compared to exiting the workforce, was associated with cognitive performance only in context with occupation. Domestic workers had a faster decline in verbal learning (b = −0.02, p = 0.020) and delayed recall (b = −0.02, p = 0.036) if they continued working actively and people working in administration (b = 0.03, p = 0.007), sales (b = 0.02, p = 0.044) and educators (b = 0.03, p = 0.049) had a slower decline in visual scanning if they continued working in old age. Our findings indicate that continued participation in the labour force in old age does not necessarily come with cognitive benefits. Whether or not working actively in later life protects or even harms cognitive functioning is likely to depend on the type of job.

先前的研究表明，职业可能会影响晚年的认知功能。由于低收入和中等收入国家的人们通常不得不工作到晚年，我们试图调查晚年工作是否对认知有好处，以及认知功能在退出劳动力市场后是否会恶化。我们分析了来自墨西哥健康和老龄化研究 (MHAS) 的纵向数据，该研究是墨西哥 50 岁以上成年人的全国代表性样本 (N = 7,375)，该研究通过语言学习、延迟回忆和视觉扫描评估认知功能。使用针对性别、日常生活中的工具性活动、糖尿病、中风、高血压、抑郁症、收入和婚姻状况的影响进行校正的混合效应模型进行分析。结果表明，与退出劳动力市场相比，积极工作，仅在与职业相关的情况下与认知表现相关。家政工人的语言学习下降更快（b = −0.02, p = 0.020) 和延迟召回 ( b = −0.02, p = 0.036) 如果他们继续积极工作并且人们从事管理工作 ( b = 0.03, p = 0.007), 销售 ( b = 0.02, p = 0.044) 和教育工作者 ( b = 0.03, p = 0.049) 如果他们在晚年继续工作，则视觉扫描的下降速度较慢。我们的研究结果表明，继续参与老年劳动力并不一定会带来认知益处。晚年积极工作是否会保护甚至损害认知功能可能取决于工作类型。