title: Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early-life adversity is related to adult health in old age but little is known about its relation with cognitive decline.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included more than 6,100 older residents (mean age = 74.9 [7.1] years; 61.8% African American) enrolled in the Chicago Health and Aging Project, a geographically defined, population-based study of risk factors for Alzheimer disease. Participants were interviewed at approximately 3-year intervals for up to 16 years. The interview included a baseline evaluation of early-life adversity, and administration of 4 brief cognitive function tests to assess change in cognitive function. We estimated the relation of early-life adversity to rate of cognitive decline in a series of mixed-effects models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In models stratified by race, and adjusted for age and sex, early-life adversity was differentially related to decline in African Americans and whites. Whereas no measure of early-life adversity related to cognitive decline in whites, both food deprivation and being thinner than average in early life were associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline in African Americans. The relations were not mediated by years of education and persisted after adjustment for cardiovascular factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Markers of early-life adversity had an unexpected protective effect on cognitive decline in African Americans.
authors.affiliation: Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA. Lisa_L_Barnes@rush.edu
authors.forename: Lisa L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Susan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Everson-Rose
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hayward
authors.forename: Denis A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Carlos F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Mendes de Leon
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*