Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics and Cognitive Functioning among Diverse Older Adults: An Intersectional Approach

Abstract

Unfavorable neighborhood conditions are linked to health disparities. Yet, a dearth of literature examines how neighborhood characteristics contribute to cognitive health in diverse samples of older adults. The present study uses an intersectional approach to examine how race/ethnicity, gender, and education moderate the association between neighborhood perceptions and cognitive functioning in later life. We used data from adults ≥65 years old (n = 8023) in the 2010–2016 waves of the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We conducted race/ethnicity-stratified linear regression models where cognitive functioning, measured using the 35-point Telephone Interview Cognitive Screen (TICS), was regressed on three neighborhood characteristics—cleanliness, safety, and social cohesion. We examine whether there is heterogeneity within race/ethnicity by testing if and how the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and cognitive functioning differs by gender and education. Among White adults, worse neighborhood characteristics were associated with lower cognitive functioning among those with less education. However, for Black adults, poor perceived quality of one’s neighborhood was associated with worse cognitive functioning among those with more years of education compared to those with fewer years of education. Among Mexicans, perceived neighborhood uncleanliness was associated with lower cognitive functioning among those with less education, but higher cognitive functioning for those with higher levels of education. Thus, this study contributes to the literature on racial/ethnic disparities in cognitive aging disparities by examining neighborhood contextual factors as determinants of cognitive functioning. In particular, we find that higher education in the context of less favorable neighborhood environments does not confer the same benefits to cognitive functioning among all older adults.

Environmental Factors Affecting Cognitive Function among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Longitudinal Study

“…Future studies need to collect larger samples from different regions by random sampling in order to improve practical and political implications. Third, we used GIS to examine the relationship between objective environmental factors and dementia, but we were not able to examine the effects of subjectively measured environmental factors (e.g., perceptions to unfavorable and disadvantaged neighborhood conditions), which have been examined in past studies [31,32]. In addition, all the environment variables were measured at one time point.…”

Intersectional Approaches to Minority Aging Research

“…Specifically, they observed that older women of color who were formerly incarcerated experienced the highest number of depressive symptoms and physical limitations compared to all other groups. Thierry [ 65 ] evaluated the interactive significance of race, neighborhood context, and geographic region for shaping telomere length (i.e., a maker of cellular aging) among older Black adults. This study revealed that older Black adults living in the Midwest who rated their communities more negatively had the shortest telomeres.…”

A Scoping Review of Neighborhoods and Cognitive Health Disparities Among US Midlife and Older Adults

“…Racial/ethnic disparities in both exposure to different neighborhood environments as well as in cognitive function are documented (Thierry et al, 2021; Wong & Wang, 2022). To our knowledge, the scope of existing research addressing how race and ethnicity may factor into associations between neighborhood characteristics and cognition has not yet been synthesized.…”