Abstract
The majority of studies on stressful life events focus on posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, while less is known about whether the cumulative exposure to stressful life events over the life course will deteriorate cognitive function. This study aims to investigate the association between lifetime stressful life events and cognitive function in an immigrant population. The data were drawn from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago (PINE). Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a sample of 3125 U.S. Chinese older adults in 2017–2019. Twelve types of stressful life events were assessed: physical assault, residential fires, sexual assault, miscarriage, abortion, imprisonment, being falsely accused, divorce, death of a loved one, being robbed, experiencing cancer, and being homeless. Cognitive function was measured through global cognition, episodic memory, working memory, processing speed, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Linear regression was performed. Older adults who experienced a higher number of life events were associated with higher global cognition (b = 0.11, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001), episodic memory (b = 0.14, SE = 0.02, p < 0.001), working memory (b = 0.17, SE = 0.03, p < 0.001), processing speed (b = 1.92, SE = 0.18, p < 0.001), and MMSE (b = 0.29, SE = 0.07, p < 0.001), while controlling for age, gender, income, education, medical comorbidities, ADL, and depressive symptoms. In contrast with earlier studies, we identified the positive relationships between aggregate and individual life events and cognition. Older adults who had prior experience with stressful life events could demonstrate an advantage over those without such experiences. In addition, older adults who experienced life event(s) during adulthood and old age are associated with higher cognitive function. Further studies could investigate how individuals respond to stressful life events and how the underlying resilience mechanism would promote cognitive function.
Highlights
Individuals experience many stressful life events over the entire life course
We found that a greater number of events were associated with higher global cognition, episodic memory, working memory, events were associated with higher global cognition, episodic memory, working memory, processing speed, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)
This study found that experiencing event(s)during duringadulthood adulthood was associated with higher global found that experiencing life life event(s) was associated with higher global cognition, episodic memory, working memory, processing speed, and MMSE, whereas cognition, episodic memory, working memory, processing speed, and MMSE, whereas experiencing event(s)during during old associated with higher global cognition, experiencinglife life event(s) old ageage waswas associated with higher global cognition, epepisodic memory, processing speed, and isodic memory, processing speed, and MMSE
Summary
Individuals experience many stressful life events over the entire life course. A few studies examine the impact of cumulative life events over the life course on late-life physical and mental health, while little is known about their impact on late-life cognition [8,9]. In terms of individual stressful life events, bereavement, the experiences of having a crime committed against a participant, and serious conflicts showed a negative impact on cognitive function [4,11,12,13], whereas an experience of an injury or illness of a friend in the past year positively impacted episodic memory, psychomotor speed, and attention [11]
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