Cardiovascular Health and Education as Sources of Individual Variability in Cognitive Aging Among African Americans

Abstract

These findings suggest that although self-reported cardiovascular health contributes to variability in late life cognition in African Americans, education is a more universal predictor that should be further examined.

Age trajectories of everyday cognition in African American and White older adults under prompted and unprompted conditions

“…Other possible reasons for the race differences in unprompted performance include health status, specifically cardiovascular health, which predicts cognitive performance in older African Americans (Morgan et al, 2010). Given the increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease in African Americans relative to Whites (Go et al, 2014), it is possible that African Americans are experiencing a greater cognitive burden as a result of these risk factors (Kuo et al, 2005; Warsch et al, 2013).…”

“…Indeed, Manly, Jacobs, Touradji, Small, and Stern (2002) found that race differences on a variety of neuropsychological measures were attenuated when literacy level (as a measure of educational quality) was included as a covariate. Health factors, especially cardiovascular factors, have also been implicated as possible mechanisms for race differences in cognition (Morgan, Sims, & Whitfield, 2010; Harper & Alexander, 1990), particularly given evidence that African Americans have a higher prevalence of hypertension and other cardiovascular issues (Go et al, 2014). Cardiovascular risk factors do appear to be important predictors of cognitive functioning in both African Americans and White older adults (e.g., Beeri, Ravona-Springer, Silverman, & Haroutunian, 2009; Izquierdo-Porrera & Waldstein, 2002; Warsch et al, 2013; Yaffe et al, 2004).…”

Personality as a source of individual differences in cognition among older African Americans

“…Age appears to be a critical variable in these findings and assumes a significant proportion of the individual variability in this relationship. Also, demographic covariates, such as education, have previously been studied in this population and found to be important factors for which to account in examining cognitive functioning (Aiken Morgan et al, 2010; Whitfield, Allaire, Belue, & Ewards, 2008). …”

“…Typically and logically, factors such as health and education have been used to attempt to decompose the variability observed in cognitive functioning in African Americans (Aiken Morgan, et al, 2010), and future work in the area of personality and cognition in African Americans should also examine the role of health. Health and education are influenced by individual decisions as well as macro-social-contextual factors like insurance companies and local government policy.…”

“…Identifying the etiology of individual variability in cognitive functioning in later life remains a question of considerable interest, as does the exploration of whether the correlates of this variability differ as a function of ethnicity. Given the growing evidence that social, psychological, and health factors are important sources of individual differences that significantly and differentially impact cognitive aging in the African American population (e.g., Aiken Morgan, Sims, & Whitfield, 2010; Whitfield, Allaire, Aiken Morgan, Gamaldo, Sims, & Edwards, 2008; Whitfield & Aiken Morgan, 2008), there may be additional sources of variation in African American cognitive aging that are significant and that have remained unstudied.…”