RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites
JF Neurology
JO Neurology
FD Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
SP 2321
OP 2327
DO 10.1212/WNL.0b013e318278b607
VO 79
IS 24
A1 Barnes, Lisa L.
A1 Wilson, Robert S.
A1 Everson-Rose, Susan A.
A1 Hayward, Mark D.
A1 Evans, Denis A.
A1 Mendes de Leon, Carlos F.
YR 2012
UL http://n.neurology.org/content/79/24/2321.abstract
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