Role of sex in the association between childhood socioeconomic position and cognitive ageing in later life

Wolfová, Katrin; Csajbók, Zsófia; Kågström, Anna; Kåreholt, Ingemar; Čermáková, Pavla

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-84022-1

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The interaction models presented here suggest that higher-IEO contexts may prevent women, particularly from lower educated backgrounds who are at increased risk to not receive skill-matching education, to reach their full cognitive potential. The models incorporating childhood information showed that women schooled in higher-IEO contexts and who had less advantaged parental socioeconomic backgrounds had steeper cognitive decline, confirming and extending recent findings ( Wolfova et al, 2021 ). Further, several studies link changes in educational system to changes in gender egalitarianism ( Shu, 2004 ; Thijs et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…If anything, women showed greater resilience to cognitive aging than men ( McCarrey et al, 2016 ). However, effects of early-life socioeconomic disadvantage on cognitive performance have been shown to be greater for women than men ( Wolfova et al, 2021 ). In this study, we observed that the association of level of IEO with rate of cognitive decline differed between the sexes: Associations of level of IEO with rate of cognitive decline were largely absent in men, whereas women showed steeper decline in two measures of cognitive performance, delayed recall and verbal fluency.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Categories ranged from 1 “none or very few (0–10)" books to 5 “enough to fill two or more bookcases (more than 200)" books. Less advantaged parental socioeconomic conditions have recently been shown to predict higher cognitive decline particularly in women ( Wolfova et al, 2021 ), although evidence is mixed ( Aartsen et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inequality of educational opportunity at time of schooling predicts cognitive functioning in later adulthood

Leist

Bar-Haim

Chauvel

2021

SSM - Population Health

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Objectives Our understanding of how societal conditions and educational policies influence cognitive development across the life course is improving. We tested the extent to which inequality of educational opportunity (IEO), the country- and cohort-specific correlation of parents' and their offspring's length of schooling, offers systematically different opportunities to contribute to cognitive development, which in turn influences cognitive abilities up to older ages. Methods A total of 46,972 individuals of three cohorts born 1940–63 from 16 European countries and Israel provided up to six cognitive assessments and information on covariates in the SHARE survey 2004–2017. Individual-level data were linked to indicators of IEO at time of schooling, and economic, health, and human development, provided by World Bank, WHO, and the UN. Results In multilevel (mixed-effects) models with random individual and country-cohort effects and adjusted for a large set of confounders, higher IEO was associated with lower levels of cognitive functioning in men and women. Interaction analyses suggested lower cognitive levels particularly of women who were schooled in higher IEO contexts and had lower educational attainment. Associations with rate of change in cognitive functioning were present only in women, however there was little clinically relevant cognitive decline across the window of observation. Result patterns were mostly consistent after including additional contextual indicators, and in a subsample with childhood information. Discussion Findings suggest that IEO is able to substantially influence cognitive development with long-lasting impacts. Lower-educated women of the cohorts under investigation may have been particularly vulnerable to high-inequality educational contexts.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inequality of educational opportunity at time of schooling predicts cognitive functioning in later adulthood

Leist

Bar-Haim

Chauvel

2021

SSM - Population Health

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“…However, main effect results supported that participants with less educated mothers (i.e., less than secondary school mother education) showed an increase in cognitive decline between the ages of 69.8 and 76.7 years of age ( β = −0.132, p = 0.048, and CI = −0.80, −0.00). As a recent study showed that low childhood SES had a greater association to cognitive decline in women ( N = 84,059; Mage = 64.0 years; Wolfova et al, 2021 ), we analyzed gender as a possible moderator between participants with less educated mothers and cognitive decline. Results showed no interaction between gender and less educated mothers within our analytical sample ( β = −0.001, CI = −0.529, 0.522).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood Socioeconomic Status Does Not Predict Late-Life Cognitive Decline in the 1936 Lothian Birth Cohort

et al. 2021

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This study examined childhood socioeconomic status (SES) as a predictor of later life cognitive decline. Data came from 519 participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936) study. SES measures at 11 years of age included parental educational attainment, father’s occupational status, household characteristics and a composite measure of global childhood SES (i.e., a total of low SES childhood indicators). Cognitive abilities were assessed by the Mini-Mental State Exam at ages 69.8, 72.8 and 76.7 years. Most indicators of low childhood SES (i.e., father manual worker, less than secondary school father education, household overcrowding, exterior located toilet, and global childhood SES) did not predict cognitive decline between the ages of 69.8 and 76.7. Participants with less educated mothers showed an increase in cognitive decline (β = −0.132, p = 0.048, and CI = −0.80, −0.00). The relationship between maternal educational attainment and cognitive decline became non-significant when controlling for adult SES (i.e., participant educational attainment and occupation). Adult SES did not mediate the latter relationship. This study provides new evidence that childhood SES alone is not strongly associated with cognitive decline. New knowledge is critical to improving population health by identifying life span stages in which interventions might be effective in preventing cognitive decline.

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“…Evidence suggests that people in low SEPs may be less able to take advantage of developing health information because of limited access to the information and limited means to adapt to new information (Finkel & Ernsth Bravell, 2020; Mirowsky & Ross, 2003). As a result of these factors, people with low SEP tend to have worse cognitive and physical function in late adulthood (Darin-Mattsson et al, 2017; Wolfova et al, 2021).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of childhood and adult socioeconomic position on change in functional aging.

Finkel,

Nilsen,

Sindi

et al. 2024

Health Psychology

Self Cite

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Objectives: To examine life-course models by investigating the roles of childhood and adult socioeconomic position (SEP) in longitudinal changes in a functional aging index. Method: Up to eight waves of testing, covering 25 years, were available from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging: N = 654, intake age = 50-82. A two-slope latent growth curve model was applied to the data, and the impact of including childhood and adult SEP as covariates of the intercept (at age 70) and slopes (before and after age 70) was tested. Results: Both childhood and adult SEP contributed to the best-fitting model. Childhood SEP was significantly associated with intercept and Slope 1 (before age 70) of the latent growth curve model (p , .05). Association of adult SEP with Slope 2 (after age 70) trended toward significance (p , .10). There was a significant interaction effect of childhood and adult SEP on the intercept (p , .05). As a result, intercept at age 70 was highest and change after age 70 was fastest for those whose SEP decreased from childhood to adulthood. Conclusions: Both childhood and adult SEP impact change in functional abilities with age, supporting both critical period and social mobility models. The social environment is modifiable by policies at local, national, and international levels, and these policies need to recognize that early social disadvantage can have long-lasting health impacts. Public Significance StatementEconomic disadvantage in both childhood and adulthood can impact the pace of physical aging. In fact, the number of years lost to economic disadvantage may be equal to or greater than the number of years lost because of major risk factors for chronic disease. Initiatives targeting health inequalities should be focused on interventions early in the life course.

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Role of sex in the association between childhood socioeconomic position and cognitive ageing in later life

Cited by 10 publications

References 55 publications

Inequality of educational opportunity at time of schooling predicts cognitive functioning in later adulthood

Inequality of educational opportunity at time of schooling predicts cognitive functioning in later adulthood

Childhood Socioeconomic Status Does Not Predict Late-Life Cognitive Decline in the 1936 Lothian Birth Cohort

Impact of childhood and adult socioeconomic position on change in functional aging.

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