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. 2012 Dec 11;79(24):2321-7.
doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e318278b607.

Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites

Lisa L Barnes  1 , Robert S Wilson, Susan A Everson-Rose, Mark D Hayward, Denis A Evans, Carlos F Mendes de Leon
Affiliations

Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites

Lisa L Barnes et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Objectives: Early-life adversity is related to adult health in old age but little is known about its relation with cognitive decline.

Methods: Participants included more than 6,100 older residents (mean age = 74.9 [7.1] years; 61.8% African American) enrolled in the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a geographically defined, population-based study of risk factors for Alzheimer disease. Participants were interviewed at approximately 3-year intervals for up to 16 years. The interview included a baseline evaluation of early-life adversity, and administration of 4 brief cognitive function tests to assess change in cognitive function. We estimated the relation of early-life adversity to rate of cognitive decline in a series of mixed-effects models.

Results: In models stratified by race, and adjusted for age and sex, early-life adversity was differentially related to decline in African Americans and whites. Whereas no measure of early-life adversity related to cognitive decline in whites, both food deprivation and being thinner than average in early life were associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline in African Americans. The relations were not mediated by years of education and persisted after adjustment for cardiovascular factors.

Conclusions: Markers of early-life adversity had an unexpected protective effect on cognitive decline in African Americans.

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