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Retirement and decline in episodic memory: analysis from a prospective study of adults in England.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Work has been associated with cognitive health. We examined whether retirement from work is associated with a decrease in episodic memory and whether this effect differs when considering workers' occupational class. METHODS:In this prospective study using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we examined 1629 persons aged 50-75?years who were in paid work at baseline. A two-slope random effects linear regression centred at retirement was used to study the effect of retirement on episodic memory. The potential effect modification by occupational class was examined. RESULTS:While memory trajectories show slightly decreasing memory scores before and afterretirement, the decreasing rates for both periods were similar [episodic memory ?2b-?2a= -0.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.08, 0.02]. When stratifying by occupational class, there was also no substantial difference in episodic memory trajectories before and after retirement. However, the lower occupational class showed a clear decline in episodic memory with time (pre-retirement ?2a = -0.11, 95% CI -0.19, -0.03; post-retirement ?2b = -0.13, 95% CI -0.19, -0.07) which was not evident for the higher occupational classes. CONCLUSIONS:Our results show no observable difference in trajectories of change in episodic memory before and after retirement. However, the steeper memory decline in workers belonging to the lower occupational class may limit their prospect of prolonging their working lives. Hence enrichment programmes for the prevention of memory decline for these workers should be considered.

SUBMITTER: Romero Starke K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6929525 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Retirement and decline in episodic memory: analysis from a prospective study of adults in England.

Romero Starke Karla K Seidler Andreas A Hegewald Janice J Klimova Anna A Palmer Katie K

International journal of epidemiology 20191201 6

<h4>Background</h4>Work has been associated with cognitive health. We examined whether retirement from work is associated with a decrease in episodic memory and whether this effect differs when considering workers' occupational class.<h4>Methods</h4>In this prospective study using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we examined 1629 persons aged 50-75 years who were in paid work at baseline. A two-slope random effects linear regression centred at retirement was used to study the eff ...[more]

PMID: 31280313

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Project description:Evidence suggests exposure to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) may increase the risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Whether PM2.5 alters brain structure and accelerates the preclinical neuropsychological processes remains unknown. Early decline of episodic memory is detectable in preclinical Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to examine whether PM2.5 affects the episodic memory decline, and also explored the potential mediating role of increased neuroanatomic risk of Alzheimer's disease associated with exposure. Participants included older females (n = 998; aged 73-87) enrolled in both the Women's Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging and the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, with annual (1999-2010) episodic memory assessment by the California Verbal Learning Test, including measures of immediate free recall/new learning (List A Trials 1-3; List B) and delayed free recall (short- and long-delay), and up to two brain scans (MRI-1: 2005-06; MRI-2: 2009-10). Subjects were assigned Alzheimer's disease pattern similarity scores (a brain-MRI measured neuroanatomical risk for Alzheimer's disease), developed by supervised machine learning and validated with data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Based on residential histories and environmental data on air monitoring and simulated atmospheric chemistry, we used a spatiotemporal model to estimate 3-year average PM2.5 exposure preceding MRI-1. In multilevel structural equation models, PM2.5 was associated with greater declines in immediate recall and new learning, but no association was found with decline in delayed-recall or composite scores. For each interquartile increment (2.81 μg/m3) of PM2.5, the annual decline rate was significantly accelerated by 19.3% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.9% to 36.2%] for Trials 1-3 and 14.8% (4.4% to 24.9%) for List B performance, adjusting for multiple potential confounders. Long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with increased Alzheimer's disease pattern similarity scores, which accounted for 22.6% (95% CI: 1% to 68.9%) and 10.7% (95% CI: 1.0% to 30.3%) of the total adverse PM2.5 effects on Trials 1-3 and List B, respectively. The observed associations remained after excluding incident cases of dementia and stroke during the follow-up, or further adjusting for small-vessel ischaemic disease volumes. Our findings illustrate the continuum of PM2.5 neurotoxicity that contributes to early decline of immediate free recall/new learning at the preclinical stage, which is mediated by progressive atrophy of grey matter indicative of increased Alzheimer's disease risk, independent of cerebrovascular damage.

Dataset Information

Retirement and decline in episodic memory: analysis from a prospective study of adults in England.

Publications

Retirement and decline in episodic memory: analysis from a prospective study of adults in England.

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