The association between adverse childhood events and later-life cognitive function and dementia risk

Considerable work exists in the literature to describe the negative impacts of early-life stress exposures on health in adulthood. This study investigated whether the accumulation of adverse childhood events is associated with later-life cognitive function and incident dementia.

Participants were 1562 community-dwelling older adults, who were enrolled in the ESPRIT cohort in France. Adverse childhood events were measured using a modified version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Cognition was measured using tests of global cognition, visual memory, verbal fluency, psychomotor speed and executive function. Fourteen-year incident dementia was diagnosed using DSM-IV criteria.

In comparison to participants with two or less adverse childhood events, increased risk of poor psychomotor speed at baseline was observed in individuals with multiple adverse childhood events (3-4 events OR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.00-1.93); ≥5 events (OR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.07-2.17), particularly in women but not in men. Worse verbal fluency was also observed in individuals who experienced between three and four adverse childhood events (OR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.00-1.78). Amongst the individual factors investigated, early-life abuse/maltreatment (OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.02-2.14) and poverty/financial difficulties (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.12-2.08) was associated with worse psychomotor speed. No associations were observed with incident dementia.

Participants most at risk (those with baseline dementia) were excluded.

Multiple adverse childhood events are associated with worse psychomotor speed, and verbal fluency in later-life, however further research is needed to determine the mechanisms underlying this association and whether it results from unmeasured confounding, including social disadvantage.