American seniors scored better on cognitive tests than their British counterparts in the first transatlantic study of how ageing affects memory. The findings suggest that factors such as education, hypertension, and alcohol use might make the difference.

Previous studies have compared physical health, finding British seniors to have lower prevalence of nearly every chronic disease like diabetes or cancer. This new study of 8299 older Americans and 5276 older British found that Americans scored better on a certain cognitive challenge that measures immediate and delayed recall abilities.

As part of the studies, seniors were given a list of 10 nouns, such as hotel, river, tree, skin, gold, village, baby, and table.

They were then immediately asked to recall as many of the items as they could. After five minutes of non-related questions, they were asked again how many items they could remember