Disability, not age, drives cognitive impairment in MS adults: Study

Still, older adults experience more and worse problems than younger patients

Written by Steve Bryson, PhD | January 28, 2026

• A new study found that older MS patients experience more cognitive impairment than their younger counterparts.
• Key among the findings, however, was that disability level, not age, is the main predictor of cognitive impairment in MS.
• The researchers say that age-sensitive assessments and tailored interventions are needed for older people with MS.

Older adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) show a higher prevalence and severity of cognitive impairment — particularly affecting information processing speed and memory — than younger patients, a new study reports.

However, age was not directly associated with cognitive impairment, the results showed. Instead, greater disability emerged as the main predictor of such problems in older MS patients.

The researchers noted that having higher education or occupational attainment acted as a protective factor for older people with the neurodegenerative disease.

“Taken together, these findings indicate that the cognitive differences observed between age groups … may largely reflect the cumulative impact of disease-related factors rather than ageing itself. This reinforces the interpretation that lifelong disease burden, rather than chronological age, is the primary driver of cognitive decline in older [people with] MS,” the researchers wrote.

According to the team, these findings “underscore the need for age-sensitive neuropsychological assessments and tailored intervention strategies to preserve cognition in late adulthood.”

The study, “Neurocognitive Outcomes in Older Adults with Multiple Sclerosis: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Cohort,” was published in the journal Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.

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