Aging
Evaluating individual socioeconomic status as a mediator for the effect of residential segregation and late-life cognition Yi Lor* Yi Lor Lor Lor Lor Lor Lor Lor Lor Lor University of California Davis
Introduction: Possible mechanisms linking residential segregation to cognition remain unclear. We examined whether late-life socioeconomic status (SES) mediates the associations between midlife segregation and late-life cognition.
Methods: The KHANDLE and STAR cohorts include 2,476 ethnoracially diverse older adults (40% Black, 20% White, 17% Asian, 14% Latinx) with self-reported midlife (age 40) residence linked to census tract data (1970–2010). City-level residential segregation was assessed using dissimilarity (uneven distribution of ethnoracial groups across tracts within a city) and isolation (likelihood of interacting with same-group members in a city). Executive function (EF), verbal episodic memory (VEM), and semantic memory (SM) were assessed at baseline (2017-2018). Late-life SES (low vs. high) was defined using self-reported income, public assistance, and financial concerns. Regression-based mediation analysis decomposed the total effect (TE) of segregation on domain-specific cognition into the natural direct effect (NDE) and natural indirect effect (NIE) via SES for each race/ethnicity.
Results: Participants (mean age 73.9±8.5 years) were 62% female and 89% had a college/trade education or more. Among Asian participants, higher isolation was associated with worse EF (βTE=–0.76[95%CI:–1.35, –0.14], βNDE=–0.78[–1.35, –0.14]) but was not mediated by late-life SES (βNIE=0.02[–0.08, 0.09]); higher dissimilarity was associated with worse VEM (βTE=–0.42[–0.90, –0.03], βNDE=–0.42[–0.90, –0.03]) but was not mediated by SES (βNIE=0.02[–0.02, 0.05]). Among Latinx participants, higher isolation was associated with worse SM (βTE=–0.90[–1.73, –0.19], βNDE=–0.89[–1.74, –0.17]) but was not mediated by SES (βNIE=–0.01[–0.09, 0.06]); higher dissimilarity was not associated with late life cognition. No TE, NDE, or NIE were observed among Black participants.
Discussion: Late-life SES did not mediate the association between residential segregation and late-life cognition.
