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. 2022 Feb 10;19(4):1099-1109.
doi: 10.1007/s10433-022-00683-5. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Exposure to the troubles in Northern Ireland, memory functioning, and social activity engagement: results from NICOLA

Joanna E McHugh Power  1   2 , Joanne Feeney  3 , Elizabeth Fowler  2 , Alan J McMichael  2 , Philip Hyland  1 , Brian A Lawlor  3 , Sharon Cruise  2 , Claire Potter  2 , Ian Young  2 , Bernadette McGuinness  2 , Frank Kee  2
Affiliations

Exposure to the troubles in Northern Ireland, memory functioning, and social activity engagement: results from NICOLA

Joanna E McHugh Power et al. Eur J Ageing. .

Abstract

We investigated the potential impact of a cohort traumatic exposure, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, on memory functioning in later life, and the potential moderating effect of social activity engagement. Using data from 6571 participants aged 60 + in the Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA) cohort, we used a structural equation modelling framework to explore associations between traumatic exposure during the Troubles and memory functioning. As expected, social activity engagement was positively associated with memory functioning, β = .102. Traumatic exposure was also positively associated with memory functioning, β = .053. This association was stronger at low levels of social activity engagement; among those with higher levels, there was little association, interaction β = - 0.054. The positive association between traumatic exposure during the Troubles and memory functioning was not moderated by the age at which the exposures occurred (based on analysis of a subsample with available data), interaction β = - 0.015. We conclude that superior memory functioning was associated with higher levels of traumatic exposure during the Troubles, particularly among those with lower levels of social activity engagement, and regardless of the age at which the exposures occurred. Future longitudinal analyses are required to build on these results, which potentially have implications for life-course epidemiology, in relation to critical periods for traumatising experiences.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00683-5.

Keywords: Cognitive ageing; Cohort studies; Structural equation modelling; Traumatic exposure.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Biomedical Sciences in Queen’s University Belfast and therefore has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. All participants gave written informed consent before participating. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Moderation effect of Social Activity Engagement on effect of Troubles Exposure on Episodic Memory (red line represents low levels of social activity engagement, while green line represents high levels of social activity engagement)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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