Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (nSES) is associated with risk for cognitive impairment, but prior studies assessed nSES within an individual’s own residential area without considering the distribution of nSES among adjacent areas.
METHODS
Using up to 14 years of data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (N = 1391, mean age = 54), we examined whether geographic clustering of concentrated neighborhood poverty was associated with cognitive decline over midlife.
RESULTS
Greater neighborhood concentrated poverty was associated with faster decline in episodic memory but not in processing speed or working memory. Living in high concentrated poverty areas was linked to a 7% episodic memory decline per decade (both immediate and delayed recall), with Black women experiencing the steepest decline at 10% per decade (delayed recall).
DISCUSSION
Women living in concentrated poverty areas exhibited accelerated decline in episodic memory during midlife. Neighborhood concentrated poverty may impact risk for future cognitive impairment and ADRD.
Highlights
Living in concentrated poverty areas predicted a more rapid episodic memory decline.
This pattern was most pronounced among Black women.
The cohort was a racially/ethnically diverse cohort of midlife women across the US.
Neighborhood concentrated poverty may contribute to the risk of ADRD.
If you do not see content above, kindly GO TO SOURCE.
Not all publishers encode content in a way that enables republishing at Neuro.vip.
This post is Copyright: Jinshil Hyun,
Mary Schiff,
Charles B. Hall,
Bradley M. Appelhans,
Emma Barinas‐Mitchell,
Rebecca C. Thurston,
Carrie A. Karvonen‐Gutierrez,
Monique M. Hedderson,
Imke Janssen,
Carol A. Derby | April 7, 2025