Neighborhood Psychosocial Environment, Apolipoprotein E Genotype, and Cognitive Function in Older Adults

Abstract

Context The social environment may influence cognitive function in aging. However, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated whether specific genes modify this association. Objective To examine whether the apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon-4 allele modified the associations of neighborhood psychosocial hazards and cognitive function. Design A cross-sectional analysis. Setting The Baltimore Memory Study, a population-based sample of older urban residents. The 65 study neighborhoods in Baltimore city were characterized using the Neighborhood Psychosocial Hazards scale, designed to assess social disorganization, physical disorder, public safety, and economic deprivation. Participants One thousand one hundred forty urban residents aged 50 to 70 years at baseline. Main Outcome Measures Cognitive performance on 20 standard tests was measured and combined to form 7 summary domain scores (language, processing speed, eye-hand coordination, executive functioning, verbal memory and learning, visual memory, and visuoconstruction). Results In analyses fully adjusted for individual covariates, we found that high (i.e., worse) neighborhood psychosocial hazards were not consistently associated with worse cognitive performance. However, the interaction of high neighborhood psychosocial hazards and APOE ε4 genotype was found to be associated with worse cognitive domain scores, with evidence of associations in the domains of processing speed (p = 0.02) and executive functioning (p < 0.001). Suggestive evidence was also found for eye-hand coordination (p = 0.05). Conclusion Living in a psychosocially hazardous neighborhood was associated with worse cognitive function in persons with the APOE ε4 allele, evidence of a novel gene x environment interaction.

Neighborhood Environment and Cognition in Older Adults: A Systematic Review

“…Seventy-six percent of samples were population-based or randomly sampled. Eleven 32,37,38,45,47,49–54 studies used the MMSE, five studies 9,17,35,40,43 used the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status, five used domain-specific cognitive measures, 39,42,44,48,51 and four used composite cognitive measures. 33,34,36,41 Eighty-four percent of studies used continuous measures of cognition instead of categorical/dichotomous measures, and ten studies used longitudinal cognitive measures.…”

“…Two of five studies 33,42 (one cross-sectional, one longitudinal) found that greater psychosocial disorder was associated with worse cognition (Table 1). In two cross-sectional studies on social climate, positive acts of neighboring were associated with better cognition, 34 but perceptions of friendly neighbors or the number of children, relatives, and friends in the neighborhood was not associated with cognition.…”

Stress, race, and APOE: understanding the interplay of risk factors for changes in cognitive functioning

“…Although previous studies have demonstrated the potentiating effects of environmental stressors, such as problems meeting basic needs, on the relationship between APOE e4 and CD (Comijs, Van Den Kommer, Minnaar, Penninx, & Deeg, 2011;Lee et al, 2008;Lee, Glass, James, Bandeen-Roche, & Schwartz, 2011;SachsEricsson, Corsentino, Collins, Sawyer, & Blazer, 2010), few have examined these effects based on race. According to the 'Weathering' hypothesis suggested by Geronimus, Hicken, Keene, and Bound (2006), older African-Americans may have experienced consistently higher stress throughout their lives, causing them to be more vulnerable to later insults.…”

The influence of neighborhood characteristics on police officers' encounters with persons suspected to have a serious mental illness

“…Using the factor score approach, Eibner and Sturm (2006) found that different components of deprivation have varying effects on physical and mental health outcomes. Some studies use standardized census variable data (z-scores) in factor analysis to derive linear indices of deprivation (McManus, Robert, Albanese, Sadek-Badawi and Palta, 2011), whereas others create scales (e.g., the Psychosocial Hazard Scale) from census-derived data designed to assess social disorganization, physical disorder, public safety, and economic deprivation (Lee, Glass, James, Bandeen-Roche and Schwartz, 2011). …”