Neuropsychology, Vol 38(6), Sep 2024, 501-515; doi:10.1037/neu0000961
Objective: We aimed to examine the association of childhood motor difficulties (MD) with cognitive impairment in midlife. Method: We studied 357 participants from a cohort born in 1971–1975. At age 9, they had completed the Test of Motor Impairment, which classified them into three groups: childhood MD (cMD), borderline cMD (bcMD), or no cMD. Participants with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were excluded. At age 40, participants comprised 18 (5.0%) with cMD, 43 (12.0%) with bcMD, and 296 (82.9%) with no cMD. They underwent neuropsychological assessment covering six domains: executive functions, processing speed, attention and working memory, learning and memory, verbal symbolic abilities, and visuoperceptual and visuospatial abilities. A participant was considered to have an impairment if their performance was in the 15th percentile of a normative group. Results: Participants with cMD were more likely than those with no cMD to have an impairment in executive functions (OR = 6.73, p OR = 3.85, p OR = 4.79, p OR = 3.62, p