The Relationship between Life Course Socioeconomic Conditions and Objective and Subjective Memory in Older Age

Abstract

While objective memory performance in older adults was primarily shown to be affected by education as indicator of life course socioeconomic conditions, other life course socioeconomic conditions seem to relate to subjective memory complaints. However, studies differ in which life course stages were investigated. Moreover, studies have explored these effects in an isolated way, but have not yet investigated their unique effect when considering several stages of the life course simultaneously. This study, therefore, examined the respective influence of socioeconomic conditions from childhood up to late-life on prospective memory (PM) performance as an objective indicator of everyday memory as well as on subjective memory complaints (SMC) in older age using structural equation modeling. Data came from two waves of the Vivre-Leben-Vivere aging study (n=993, Mage=80.56). The results indicate that only socioeconomic conditions in adulthood significantly predicted late-life PM performance. PM performance was also predicted by age and self-rated health. In contrast, SMC in older age were not predicted by socioeconomic conditions at any stage of the life course but were predicted by level of depression. In line with the cognitive reserve hypothesis, present results highlight the significance of education and occupation (adulthood socioeconomic conditions) for cognitive functioning in later life.

Higher levels of neuroticism in older adults predict lower executive functioning across time: the mediating role of perceived stress

“…Data stem from the first and second waves of the longitudinal study "Vivre -Leben -Vivere" (VLV), which investigated cognitive aging across the lifespan in Switzerland. Participants were assessed in 2011 and 2017 in a face-to-face computer-assisted personal interview (for more details on the procedure, see Ihle et al, 2018;Künzi et al, 2021;Mella et al, 2018;Vallet et al, 2020).…”

Cognitive reserve over life course and 7-year trajectories of cognitive decline: results from China health and retirement longitudinal study

“…Higher childhood SES has been found to have a positive effect on cognitive function, although inconsistent findings were reported on the rate of cognitive decline [ 20 , 21 ]. In adulthood, SES (e.g., own education and occupation) represents one’s experience accumulated through most part of the lifetime and plays an important role in successful aging [ 22 ]. Previous research has used both childhood and adulthood SES as CR markers with the rationale that higher level of SES provides an individual with better economic resources and environmental enrichment, which contributes to better brain health in both childhood and adulthood [ 10 ].…”

Cumulative Life Course Adversity and Cognition: Investigation of this Association and its Underlying Mechanisms

“…Existing literature on the associations between adversity and cognition later in life have reported both a negative (Aartsen et al, 2019;Künzi et al, 2021;Richards & Wadsworth, 2004;Shonkoff et al, 2012) and a positive relationship (Feeney et al, 2013;Künzi et al, 2022;Rosnick et al, 2007), suggesting that further factors should be considered when exploring the relationship between adversity and cognition. Indeed, existing results investigating the association between adversity and brain and/or cognition, vary according to the specificity (severity), number, duration as well as the chronicity of the adversity, the life course period at which the adversity was experienced, and the cognitive domains under investigation (Bick & Nelson, 2016;Künzi et al, 2022;Nelson et al, 2020).…”

“…Indeed, existing results investigating the association between adversity and brain and/or cognition, vary according to the specificity (severity), number, duration as well as the chronicity of the adversity, the life course period at which the adversity was experienced, and the cognitive domains under investigation (Bick & Nelson, 2016;Künzi et al, 2022;Nelson et al, 2020). However, it is difficult to disentangle the effect of one specific type of adversity since different adversities (types) frequently co-occur at the same time (Green et al, 2010), adversities experienced at one stage are often associated with adversities experienced in the next stage (Künzi et al, 2021), early life events influence brain response to adulthood stressors (McEwen, 2007), and accumulated adversity may foster resilience (Seery et al, 2010).…”