Socioeconomic characteristics of the community in childhood and cognition in old age

Robert S. Wilson, P. A. Scherr, J. L. Bienias, C. F. Mendes De Leon, S. A. Everson-Rose, D. A. Bennett, D. A. Evans

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examined the relation of early life socioeconomic circumstances to cognition in older residents of a biracial urban community. Participants had brief cognitive testing three times at approximately 3-year Intervals. At baseline, information about early life household and county socioeconomic level was collected. In mixed-effects models adjusted for age, sex, race, and education, both early life household and county socioeconomic levels were positively associated with baseline level of cognition but unrelated to cognitive decline. The results suggest that socioeconomic conditions in early life are associated with level of cognitive function in old age but not with rate of cognitive decline.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)393-407
Number of pages15
JournalExperimental Aging Research
Volume31
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2005

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by National Institute on Aging grants AG11101 and AG10161 and by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant ES10902.

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