TY - JOUR
T1 - Adverse childhood experiences and domain-specific cognitive function in a population-based study of older adults in rural South Africa
AU - Kobayashi, Lindsay C.
AU - Farrell, Meagan T.
AU - Payne, Collin F.
AU - Mall, Sumaya
AU - Montana, Livia
AU - Wagner, Ryan G.
AU - Kahn, Kathleen
AU - Tollman, Stephen
AU - Berkman, Lisa F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - Research on early life adversity and later-life cognitive function is conflicting, with little evidence from low-income settings. We investigated associations between adverse childhood experiences and cognitive function in an older population who grew up under racial segregation during South African apartheid. Data were from 1,871 adults aged 40-79 in the population-representative "Health and Ageing in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa" in 2015. The adverse childhood experiences were having a parent unemployed for > 6 months; having parents who argued or fought often; having a parent who drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems; and physical abuse from parents. Executive function, language, visuospatial ability, and memory were assessed with the Oxford Cognitive Screen-Plus, a validated cognitive assessment designed for low-income, lowliteracy settings. We estimated associations between adverse childhood experiences and latent cognitive domain z-scores using multiple-indicator, multiple-cause structural equation models. Childhood adversities were reported by 15% (parental unemployment for > 6 months), 25% (parents argued or fought often), 25% (a parent drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems), and 35% (physical abuse from parent) of respondents. They were not associated with cognition, except that having a parent who drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems was associated with lower memory z-scores (-0.07; 95% CI [<0.13, <0.01]). This is one of the first investigations into later-life cognitive outcomes associated with early adversity in a population with a historical context of pervasive trauma, and suggests that later-life memory may be vulnerable to early adversity.
AB - Research on early life adversity and later-life cognitive function is conflicting, with little evidence from low-income settings. We investigated associations between adverse childhood experiences and cognitive function in an older population who grew up under racial segregation during South African apartheid. Data were from 1,871 adults aged 40-79 in the population-representative "Health and Ageing in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa" in 2015. The adverse childhood experiences were having a parent unemployed for > 6 months; having parents who argued or fought often; having a parent who drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems; and physical abuse from parents. Executive function, language, visuospatial ability, and memory were assessed with the Oxford Cognitive Screen-Plus, a validated cognitive assessment designed for low-income, lowliteracy settings. We estimated associations between adverse childhood experiences and latent cognitive domain z-scores using multiple-indicator, multiple-cause structural equation models. Childhood adversities were reported by 15% (parental unemployment for > 6 months), 25% (parents argued or fought often), 25% (a parent drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems), and 35% (physical abuse from parent) of respondents. They were not associated with cognition, except that having a parent who drank excessively, used drugs, or had mental health problems was associated with lower memory z-scores (-0.07; 95% CI [<0.13, <0.01]). This is one of the first investigations into later-life cognitive outcomes associated with early adversity in a population with a historical context of pervasive trauma, and suggests that later-life memory may be vulnerable to early adversity.
KW - Adverse childhood experiences
KW - Cognitive aging
KW - Quantitative bias analysis
KW - South africa
KW - Structural equation modeling
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088471366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/pag0000552
DO - 10.1037/pag0000552
M3 - Article
SN - 0882-7974
VL - 35
SP - 818
EP - 830
JO - Psychology and Aging
JF - Psychology and Aging
IS - 6
ER -