Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2026

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
Effects of early-life adversity on cognitive decline in older African Americans and whites
Lisa L Barnes1, Robert S Wilson, Susan A Everson-Rose
1Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA. Lisa_L_Barnes@rush.edu
Objectives:
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.
Related Concept Videos
Cognitive Development During Adulthood
Alzheimer Disease l: Introduction
Alzheimer's Disease: Overview
The clinical diagnosis of AD hinges on the presence of memory and other cognitive impairments. Biomarkers, such as changes in Aβ and tau...
Aging
Cellular Clock Theory
The cellular clock theory posits that the human lifespan is closely tied to the finite capacity of cells to divide, a phenomenon governed by telomeres, which are protective caps at the ends of...
Alzheimer Disease ll: Pathophysiology
The Influence of Affect on Cognition

