Socioeconomic Characteristics of the Community in Childhood and Cognition in Old Age

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.

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

The authors thank the residents of Morgan Park, Washington Heights, and Beverly who participated in the study. They also thank Ms. Ann Marie Lane for community development and oversight of project coordination; Ms. Michelle Bos, Ms. Holly Hadden, Mr. Flavio LaMorticella, and Ms. Jennifer Tarpey for coordination of the study; Mr. Todd Beck for analytic programming; and the staff of the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging.

Notes

Note. Data are presented as mean (SD) or %.

*Composite score based on parental education, paternal occupation, and family financial status.

*Composite score based on parental education, paternal occupation, and family financial status.

*Results show the effect of a 1-unit change in each model term.

*Results show the effect of a 1-unit change in each model term.