Testing Age Differences in the Links between Recent Financial Difficulties and Cognitive Deficits: Longitudinal Evidence from the PATH through Life Study

Objectives: This study investigates whether the within-person associations between a recent major financial crisis and deficits in cognitive performance vary across the life course. Methods: Four waves of data from 7,442 participants (49% men) spanning 12 years and comprising 3 narrow age birth cohorts (baseline age: 20-25, 40-45, and 60-65) were drawn from a representative prospective survey from Canberra, Australia (1999-2014). Cognitive performance was assessed by the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) immediate recall trails, Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Digit Span Backward (DSB), and Trail Making Test B (TMT-B). A single item from the Threatening Life Experiences Questionnaire assessed self-reported major financial crisis in the past 6 months. Multivariable-adjusted fixed-effect regression models tested the time-dependent association between financial crisis and cognition. Results: A recent financial crisis coincided with contemporaneous declines in CVLT (mean change = -0.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.262 to -0.025), SDMT (mean change = -0.08, 95% CI = -0.147 to -0.004), and TMT-B (mean change = -0.17, 95% CI = -0.293 to -0.039) for adults in the oldest age group, and these associations were larger than in the younger age groups. In contrast, there was an overall association between financial crisis and deficits in DSB (mean change = -0.06, 95% CI = -0.105 to -0.007), with weak evidence of stronger associations in midlife relative to other age groups. These associations were independent of changes in health and socioeconomic circumstances. Discussion: This study provides important new evidence that financial difficulties in later life are potent stressors associated with occasion-specific deficits in cognitive performance.