Socioeconomic determinants of cognition among older Brazilian adults: A life‐course approach

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe prevalence of cognitive impairment is higher in low‐ and middle‐income countries compared to high‐income economies. Yet few nationally representative studies from Latin America have investigated life‐course socioeconomic factors related to the susceptibility to age‐associated cognitive impairment. In this study, we examined the associations of early‐ (education and food insecurity), mid‐ (employment stability), and late‐life (any personal income, household per capita income, and self‐perceived income) socioeconomic indicators with the risk of cognitive impairment, while simultaneously exploring whether gender plays an effect‐modifier role on these associations.MethodThe study population comprised Brazilian adults aged 50 years and over (N = 8710) from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging. Those with ≤ 1.5 SD on a global composite measure of cognition (N = 1005) were assigned to the cognitive impairment group. Unadjusted and mutually adjusted logistic regressions estimated odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals.ResultHigher midlife employment stability and late‐life household per capita income were positively associated with the health of adult cognition. Moreover, secondary analyses performed separately for males and females showed the higher the early‐life educational attainment, the lower the likelihood of impaired cognition among females but not among males. Conversely, having a source of income in old age showed a buffering role against cognitive impairment in males, but this association was not observed in females. No significant associations were noted for early‐life food insecurity or late‐life self‐perceived income.ConclusionThese findings may have implications for population health and health policy by advancing our understanding of socioeconomic determinants of mid‐to‐late‐adulthood cognition.