Intelligence has been consistently demonstrated to be a predictor of health outcomes. However, the exact mechanisms are subject of debate. Environmental and behavioral risk factors have been suggested to affect the intelligence-health association, but the available literature has mostly focused on children and young adults. Here, we aimed to investigate the intelligence-health association in older adults. We analyzed data from the Study of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a representative longitudinal survey in which participants above 50 years of age (N range = 10,000-30,000+) were interviewed in seven waves from 2004 to 2017. Indicators of physical and mental health (e.g., number of symptoms; self-reported depression) were associated with cognitive function variables (mathematical reasoning, word recall, verbal fluency) which were used as proxy measures for intelligence. Behavioral and environmental risk factors (e.g., legal drug consumption, physical inactivity, work environment) were examined as potential moderator variables for the intelligence-health association. More favorable health outcomes were modestly, but consistently associated with higher cognitive ability across variables (r range = |0.13|-|0.29|). Mixed-model Poisson regression analyses showed a reduction of 11% in self-reported symptom numbers with each unit increase in mathematical reasoning. Environmental and behavioral risk factors exhibited mostly trivial moderating effects on the intelligence-health association. Our findings reveal a positive association of intelligence and health in a representative longitudinal European sample. Environmental and behavioral risk factors offered little explanatory value for this association, suggesting a different underlying mechanism such as a general fitness factor that affects both intelligence and health.

智力一直被证明是健康结果的预测指标。然而，确切的机制是争论的主题。环境和行为风险因素被认为会影响智力-健康关联，但现有文献主要集中在儿童和年轻人身上。在这里，我们旨在调查老年人的智力-健康关联。我们分析了欧洲健康与退休研究 (SHARE) 的数据，这是一项具有代表性的纵向调查，其中 50 岁以上的参与者（N 范围 = 10,000-30,000+）在 2004 年至 2017 年的七波中接受了采访。身体指标和心理健康（例如，症状数量；自我报告的抑郁症）与认知功能变量（数学推理、单词回忆、口语流利度）被用作智力的代理措施。行为和环境风险因素（例如，合法药物消费、缺乏身体活动、工作环境）被检查为智力-健康关联的潜在调节变量。更有利的健康结果是适度的，但始终与变量间更高的认知能力相关（r 范围 = |0.13|-|0.29|）。混合模型泊松回归分析显示，数学推理每增加一个单位，自我报告的症状数量就会减少 11%。环境和行为风险因素对智力-健康关联的调节作用大多微不足道。我们的研究结果表明，在具有代表性的欧洲纵向样本中，智力与健康之间存在正相关。