Introduction

Abstract

This special issue focuses on contextual factors that contribute to cognitive aging, as they have important implications for prevention and intervention strategies to reduce the global burden of age-related cognitive impairment. Context is defined broadly in terms of geographic residence, socioeconomic conditions, social network characteristics, and the spousal/partner relationship. Each of these lifetime contextual factors has been linked to variability in cognitive development, and the included papers advance this extant literature by examining how these lifespan contexts interact with person-level characteristics in the largest, nationally representative study of aging in the United States (U.S.), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Michigan Center for Contextual Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease, a Resource Center for Minority Aging Research funded by the National Institute on Aging [AG059300].