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ABSTRACT
The rapid growth in housing insecurity among older adults is a major public health concern. While there is evidence that stress contributes to poor health, the relationship between housing-related financial stressors and cognitive functioning is relatively unknown. We investigated the association between the personal experiences of mortgage delinquency and foreclosure and cognition and its sub-components of episodic memory and mental status among Americans age 65 years and older. Using the data from two concatenated waves (2010, 2012) of the Health and Retirement Study, we analyzed data for respondents (N = 6,612) across both waves using generalized linear regressions. Our findings suggest that there is a negative association between mortgage delinquency/foreclosure and cognitive scores. Further, we found a negative association between mortgage delinquency and mental status among women, specifically. These results highlight the importance of financial well-being vis-à-vis housing stability and its significance to mental well-being and cognition of adults in later life. Future research is needed to identify macro-level stressors such as mortgage delinquency and/or foreclosure. Such information would improve strategies for prevention and intervention particularly for older adults living on fixed incomes who have little opportunity to earn pre-retirement levels of income.
Human research participants
HRS is a secondary dataset that is available to the public. The University Institutional Review Board approved this study as an exemption.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Gillian L Marshall
Gillian L Marshall
Dr. Marshall is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. Her work focusses on diverse groups of older adults examining stress, stressful life events, and supportive networks. She has published several manuscripts on the topic of financial hardships impacting the financial well-being of older adults.
Sarah L Canham
Sarah L Canham
Dr. Canham is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the College of Social Work and the College of Architecture and Planning in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. She is also the Associate Director of the University’s Health Interprofessional Education program. Dr. Canham’s community-based research engages with a broad network of providers, clinicians, and persons with lived experience to examine homelessness, housing security, health and social service delivery, and aging.
Eva Kahana
Eva Kahana
Dr. Kahana is Distinguished University Professor and Robson Professor of Humanities, Sociology, Nursing, Medicine and Applied Social Sciences and director of the Elderly Care Research Center at Case Western Reserve University. She has published more than 180 journal articles or book chapters and edited five books. The focus of her work has been the understanding proactive coping and resilience among elderly persons who encountered stress and trauma in their lives.
Eric Larson
Eric Larson
Dr. Larson is a Clinical Professor in Internal Medicine and Health Services at the University of Washington and a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Dr. Larson’s research includes Alzheimer’s disease and genomics, health services research involving technology assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, learning health systems, and quality improvement.