Early life socioeconomic status predicts cognition regardless of education level

Early life socioeconomic status (SES) may impact cognitive performance later in life. We investigated the effect on cognitive performance of early life SES, education, and late life SES in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health.

Path analysis was used to decompose associations between SES measures across the lifespan and cognition. The model included direct paths to cognition from early life SES, education, and late life SES, and indirect paths from early life passing through education and late life SES. We investigated whether the effects of early life SES are similar across middle-aged and older adults.

In 13,395 adults, the mean age was 51.5 (8.9) years, 54% were female, 53% were white, and 56% had at least college education. The direct path from early life SES remained significant in the presence of mediation paths through education, late life SES, or both, contributing to cognitive performance in both middle-aged and older adults. The indirect and total effect of early life SES was smaller for middle-aged compared to older adults. Early life SES continues to impact cognitive performance later in life independently of educational attainment and late life SES. The higher percent of mediation through education suggests that education may improve later life cognition even in the presence of low early life SES.

Our results highlight the importance of public health initiatives to improve early life SES and education to foster cognitive aging in low- and middle-income countries.