Childhood adversity and cognitive impairment in later life

Abstract

ObjectivesThis study examined the association between childhood adversity and cognitive impairment in later life and explored the potential moderation effect of gender and race.MethodsThe study sample included 15,133 participants of the Health and Retirement Study (1998–2016 surveys) who had complete data on key study measures and were more than 50. The outcome variable is a dichotomous indicator of cognitive impairment as assessed by the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status for self-respondents and the 16-item Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly for proxies. A total of six childhood adversity indicators included grade retention, parental substance abuse, physical abuse, trouble with the police, moving due to financial hardship, and receipt of help due to financial hardship in early life. The estimation of the association between childhood adversity and cognitive impairment involved Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: Grade retention had the largest effect on incident cognitive impairment (HR = 1.3, 95% CI = 1.23–1.38, p < 0.001), followed by physical abuse by a parent (HR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.00–1.20, p = 0.001). The impact of grade retention was more detrimental to women than men (interaction term HR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.80–1.00, p = 0.048, female as the reference). Parental substance abuse was associated with a lower risk of incident cognitive impairment for most racial groups (HR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.83–0.95, p = 0.001), but this association was reversed in “non-Hispanic other” race, consisting mainly of Asians (HR = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.05–2.26, p = 0.025).DiscussionSome aspects of childhood adversity continue to harm cognitive functioning in later life, while some events may have the opposite effect, with evidence of heterogeneity across gender and race.

Lifetime Abuse Victimization and Prospective Health Outcomes in Older Adults

“…Notably, the non-significant relationship between lifetime abuse victimization and memory was contrary to a prior, U.S.-representative study that showed the long-term effects of childhood abuse on cognitive impairment in later life (Xiang et al, 2022). There was a significant lagged effect of depression from the prior data collection on memory (See Supplementary Table 5).…”

Frailty, cognitive impairment, and depressive symptoms in Chinese older adults: an eight-year multi-trajectory analysis

“…But the magnitude of this association shown in this study was alarming. After correction for multiple comparison, childhood health and financial situation did not appear to be a significant risk factor for the comparatively worse trajectories, although previous literature has indicated the lifelong impact of childhood adversities on these three conditions in later life [ 63 – 65 ]. This could also be due to the observed strong association between participants’ self-rated health at baseline and the trajectories.…”

Caregivers of People With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

“…However, other work has shown that early life adversity, as measured by food deprivation and being thinner in childhood, was associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline in older African Americans 39 . Similarly, Xiang et al 40 found that parental substance abuse in childhood was associated with a lower risk of incident cognitive impairment in the Health and Retirement Study. Our findings suggest that resilience and posttraumatic growth may be possible mechanisms in this sample of caregivers 41 .…”