Dataset Information
Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites.
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ABSTRACT: Objectives
Early-life adversity is related to adult health in old age but little is known about its relation with cognitive decline.Methods
Participants included more than 6,100 older residents (mean age = 74.9 [7.1] years; 61.8% African American) enrolled in the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a geographically defined, population-based study of risk factors for Alzheimer disease. Participants were interviewed at approximately 3-year intervals for up to 16 years. The interview included a baseline evaluation of early-life adversity, and administration of 4 brief cognitive function tests to assess change in cognitive function. We estimated the relation of early-life adversity to rate of cognitive decline in a series of mixed-effects models.Results
In models stratified by race, and adjusted for age and sex, early-life adversity was differentially related to decline in African Americans and whites. Whereas no measure of early-life adversity related to cognitive decline in whites, both food deprivation and being thinner than average in early life were associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline in African Americans. The relations were not mediated by years of education and persisted after adjustment for cardiovascular factors.Conclusions
Markers of early-life adversity had an unexpected protective effect on cognitive decline in African Americans.
SUBMITTER: Barnes LL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3578376 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites.
Neurology 20121201 24
<h4>Objectives</h4>Early-life adversity is related to adult health in old age but little is known about its relation with cognitive decline.<h4>Methods</h4>Participants included more than 6,100 older residents (mean age = 74.9 [7.1] years; 61.8% African American) enrolled in the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a geographically defined, population-based study of risk factors for Alzheimer disease. Participants were interviewed at approximately 3-year intervals for up to 16 years. The interview ...[more]