Chronic financial hardship throughout adulthood is associated with differences in cognitive performance by midlife and complex patterns of brain aging, according to a study published on Aug. 2 in the journal Innovation in Aging.
The research examined how sustained financial hardship across early and mid-adulthood relates to cognitive performance at midlife, subsequent changes in cognition, and markers of brain health later in life. The study also explored whether these associations differ by sex, childhood socioeconomic background, and genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease.
Data were drawn from the Medical Research Council 1946 National Survey of Health and Development, a British birth cohort following 5,362 individuals. Persistent financial adversity was assessed using household income data at ages 26, 43, and 53 as well as self-reported hardships at ages 36, 43, and 53. Cognitive function was measured through processing speed and verbal memory tasks at ages 53, 63, and 69. Brain health was evaluated using MRI and PET imaging among a subset of participants.
Among those studied, greater exposure to persistent low income or ongoing financial hardships was linked with slower processing speed and poorer verbal memory at age 53. These associations weakened after adjusting for other factors but remained notable. Persistent adversity did not strongly relate to declines in processing speed over time; however, it was associated with a slower decline in verbal memory among those with lower baseline scores—a pattern interpreted as reflecting earlier losses rather than protection against decline.
The study found that men experiencing persistent low income performed worse on processing speed compared to women. Some evidence suggested men with ongoing hardships experienced slower declines than women; however, this finding did not reach statistical significance. Additional analyses showed that individuals exposed both to disadvantaged childhoods and ongoing adult adversity had greater hippocampal atrophy by late adulthood.
The authors emphasized that these subgroup findings are exploratory due to modest sample sizes for neuroimaging data. They noted limitations including selective attrition from the cohort over time, limited ethnic diversity among participants who completed imaging studies, categorical (rather than continuous) income data used for analysis, lack of cardiovascular health measures considered as potential pathways influencing results, and the fact that all participants were born in the same year may limit generalizability across generations or regions.
The researchers concluded that addressing persistent financial hardship during working age may help promote cognitive health, but cautioned that their observational design does not establish causality nor demonstrate intervention effectiveness.
