The Relationship between Life Course Socioeconomic Conditions and Objective and Subjective Memory in Older Age.

Morgane Künzi,Bogdan Draganski,Matthias Kliegel,Greta Mikneviciute,Chloé Da Silva Coelho,Andreas Ihle,Nicola Ballhausen,Alexandra Hering,Gianvito Laera,Emilie Joly-Burra,Silvia Stringhini,Doriana Tinello,Maximilian Haas,Sascha Zuber

doi:10.3390/brainsci11010061

Abstract

While objective memory performance in older adults was primarily shown to be affected by education as indicator of life course socioeconomic conditions, other life course socioeconomic conditions seem to relate to subjective memory complaints. However, studies differ in which life course stages were investigated. Moreover, studies have explored these effects in an isolated way, but have not yet investigated their unique effect when considering several stages of the life course simultaneously. This study, therefore, examined the respective influence of socioeconomic conditions from childhood up to late-life on prospective memory (PM) performance as an objective indicator of everyday memory as well as on subjective memory complaints (SMC) in older age using structural equation modeling. Data came from two waves of the Vivre-Leben-Vivere aging study (, ). The results indicate that only socioeconomic conditions in adulthood significantly predicted late-life PM performance. PM performance was also predicted by age and self-rated health. In contrast, SMC in older age were not predicted by socioeconomic conditions at any stage of the life course but were predicted by level of depression. In line with the cognitive reserve hypothesis, present results highlight the significance of education and occupation (adulthood socioeconomic conditions) for cognitive functioning in later life.

Highlights

A growing concern related to aging is the loss of cognitive abilities, especially memory [1,2]
While objective memory performance in older adults was primarily shown to be affected by education as indicator of life course socioeconomic conditions, other life course socioeconomic conditions seem to relate to subjective memory complaints
The results indicate that only socioeconomic conditions in adulthood significantly predicted late-life prospective memory (PM) performance

Summary

Introduction

A growing concern related to aging is the loss of cognitive abilities, especially memory [1,2]. One explanation may be that favorable life course socioeconomic conditions are thought to be associated with more stimulating activities and being involved in building up of cognitive reserve throughout the lifespan [12,13]. This reserve could lead to better health in later life [14] and through structural and functional brain differences, buffer against cognitive impairments and early cognitive decline [5,10,11]. This study supports the cognitive reserve hypothesis in an anatomical way in suggesting that individuals with higher socioeconomic status have higher cognitive reserve that allow them to cope with brain pathology longer before its clinical expression [17]

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