Impact of Childhood Adversity on Late-Life Cognition in Older Puerto Rican Adults.
Lian J., Crowe M., Anstey KJ., Kiely KM., Dávila AL., Andel R.
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the association between childhood adversity and late-life cognitive outcomes among older Puerto Rican adults. METHODS: Data were from the PREHCO study, a population-based cohort of 3,713 older Puerto Rican adults (mean age 72.5 years; 60% female). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were categorised into four factors: economic hardship, parental illiteracy, childhood illness, and neighbourhood disadvantage. Cognition was assessed with the Mini-Mental Cabán (MMC). For our analyses, cognitive impairment was defined as scoring 1.5 SD below expected score, adjusted for age, sex, education, and reading ability. Ordinal logistic regression (baseline) and generalised linear mixed models (all three waves) analysed MMC scores; generalised estimating equations assessed incident cognitive impairment (waves 2 and 3). RESULTS: All four adversity factors were associated with poorer MMC scores at baseline. Parental illiteracy (β=-0.35, p