PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Barnes, Lisa L.
AU  - Wilson, Robert S.
AU  - Everson-Rose, Susan A.
AU  - Hayward, Mark D.
AU  - Evans, Denis A.
AU  - Mendes de Leon, Carlos F.
TI  - Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites
AID  - 10.1212/WNL.0b013e318278b607
DP  - 2012 Dec 11
TA  - Neurology
PG  - 2321--2327
VI  - 79
IP  - 24
4099  - http://n.neurology.org/content/79/24/2321.short
4100  - http://n.neurology.org/content/79/24/2321.full
SO  - Neurology2012 Dec 11; 79
AB  - 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.MMSE=Mini-Mental State Examination