IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i10p3451-d358592.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Early-Life Conditions and Cognitive Function in Middle-and Old-Aged Chinese Adults: A Longitudinal Study

Author

Listed:
  • Lei Yang

    (School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China)

  • Zhenbo Wang

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

Abstract

A range of previous studies have suggested that early-life conditions (ELCs) are associated with various health problems throughout life in Western societies. The aim of this study was to investigate whether, and how, early-life conditions predicted the level and trajectory of cognitive function in middle- and old-aged Chinese adults. Data were obtained from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study which comprised 16,258 adults at baseline. Cognitive function was assessed using mental intactness and episodic memory and ELCs were measured by early parental death, childhood socioeconomic status (SES), food deprivation, and childhood health. Growth curve modeling was used to examine the trajectory of cognitive function (three waves in a 6-year period)with particular attention paid to the effects of ELCs on cognition. The results show that early maternal death is associated with the baseline cognitive level among middle- and old-aged Chinese adults (β range between −0.44 and −0.35, p < 0.05), but that this association is also largely attenuated by adulthood education. Higher childhood SES predicts an enhanced level of baseline cognition in both age groups (β range between 0.08 and 1.27, p < 0.001), but only protects against cognitive decline at baseline in middle-aged adults. Participants who were less healthy during childhood tended to have lower cognitive performance than those who had enjoyed good health (β range between −0.36 and −0.14, p < 0.05). The results of this study highlight the detrimental impact of deleterious ELCs on cognitive function throughout later life.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei Yang & Zhenbo Wang, 2020. "Early-Life Conditions and Cognitive Function in Middle-and Old-Aged Chinese Adults: A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-13, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:10:p:3451-:d:358592
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3451/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3451/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qing Wang & Huyang Zhang & John A. Rizzo & Hai Fang, 2018. "The Effect of Childhood Health Status on Adult Health in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Kobayashi, Lindsay C. & Glymour, M. Maria & Kahn, Kathleen & Payne, Collin F. & Wagner, Ryan G. & Montana, Livia & Mateen, Farrah J. & Tollman, Stephen M. & Berkman, Lisa F., 2017. "Childhood deprivation and later-life cognitive function in a population-based study of older rural South Africans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 20-28.
    3. Ming Wen & Danan Gu, 2011. "The Effects of Childhood, Adult, and Community Socioeconomic Conditions on Health and Mortality among Older Adults in China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 153-181, February.
    4. Ye Luo & Linda J. Waite, 2005. "The Impact of Childhood and Adult SES on Physical, Mental, and Cognitive Well-Being in Later Life," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(2), pages 93-101.
    5. Dale Dannefer, 2003. "Cumulative Advantage/Disadvantage and the Life Course: Cross-Fertilizing Age and Social Science Theory," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(6), pages 327-337.
    6. Staff, R.T. & Chapko, D. & Hogan, M.J. & Whalley, L.J., 2016. "Life course socioeconomic status and the decline in information processing speed in late life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 130-138.
    7. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    8. Stefan Fors & Carin Lennartsson & Olle Lundberg, 2009. "Childhood Living Conditions, Socioeconomic Position in Adulthood, and Cognition in Later Life: Exploring the Associations," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 64(6), pages 750-757.
    9. Gregory Pavela & Kenzie Latham, 2016. "Childhood Conditions and Multimorbidity Among Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 71(5), pages 889-901.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Minhye Kim & Suzin You & Jong-sung You & Seung-Yun Kim & Jong Heon Park, 2021. "Income-Related Mortality Inequalities and Its Social Factors among Middle-Aged and Older Adults at the District Level in Aging Seoul: An Ecological Study Using Administrative Big Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Yuqi Yan & Liqing Cai & Nan Lu, 2022. "Childhood experiences and frailty trajectory among middle-aged and older adults in China," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1601-1615, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brandt, Martina & Deindl, Christian & Hank, Karsten, 2012. "Tracing the origins of successful aging: The role of childhood conditions and social inequality in explaining later life health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(9), pages 1418-1425.
    2. Ko, Pei-Chun & Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean, 2019. "Childhood conditions and productive aging in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 60-69.
    3. Schaan, Barbara, 2014. "The interaction of family background and personal education on depressive symptoms in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 94-102.
    4. Steiber, Nadia, 2019. "Intergenerational educational mobility and health satisfaction across the life course: Does the long arm of childhood conditions only become visible later in life?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    5. Christelis, Dimitris & Dobrescu, Loretti I. & Motta, Alberto, 2020. "Early life conditions and financial risk-taking in older age," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    6. Chen, Xi, 2022. "Early Life Circumstances and the Health of Older Adults: A Research Note," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1158, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile & Phongsack Manivong & Leslie L. Roos, 2010. "Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    8. Hui Zheng & Jonathan Dirlam & Paola Echave, 2021. "Divergent Trends in the Effects of Early Life Factors on Adult Health," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1119-1148, October.
    9. Bernadette W. A. van der Linden & Delphine S. Courvoisier & Boris Cheval & Stefan Sieber & Piet Bracke & Idris Guessous & Claudine Burton-Jeangros & Matthias Kliegel & Stéphane Cullati, 2018. "Effect of childhood socioeconomic conditions on cancer onset in later life: an ambidirectional cohort study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(7), pages 799-810, September.
    10. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Cai, Shu & Li, Wei, 2024. "On the origin of cognition: How childhood conditions shape cognitive function in old age," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Angelo Lorenti & Christian Dudel & Jo M. Hale & Mikko Myrskylä, 2020. "Working and disability expectancies at old ages: the role of childhood circumstances and education," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-006, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    13. Lorenti, Angelo & Dudel, Christian & Hale, Jo Mhairi & Myrskylä, Mikko, 2020. "Working and disability expectancies at old ages: the role of childhood circumstances and education," SocArXiv q9z6p, Center for Open Science.
    14. Brienna Perelli-Harris & Stefanie Hoherz & Fenaba Addo & Trude Lappegård & Ann Evans & Sharon Sassler & Marta Styrc, 2018. "Do Marriage and Cohabitation Provide Benefits to Health in Mid-Life? The Role of Childhood Selection Mechanisms and Partnership Characteristics Across Countries," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 703-728, October.
    15. Bruno Arpino & Jordi Gumà & Albert Julià, 2018. "Early-life conditions and health at older ages: The mediating role of educational attainment, family and employment trajectories," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, April.
    16. Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kröger, Hannes & Geyer, Siegfried, 2019. "Social Causation Versus Health Selection in the Life Course: Does Their Relative Importance Differ by Dimension of SES?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 141(3), pages 1341-1367.
    17. de Almeida, Filipa & Scott, Ian J. & Soro, Jerônimo C. & Fernandes, Daniel & Amaral, André R. & Catarino, Mafalda L. & Arêde, André & Ferreira, Mário B., 2024. "Financial scarcity and cognitive performance: A meta-analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    18. Huang, Cheng & Soldo, Beth J. & Elo, Irma T., 2011. "Do early-life conditions predict functional health status in adulthood? The case of Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 100-107, January.
    19. Juan Li & Hanzhang Xu & Wei Pan & Bei Wu, 2017. "Association between tooth loss and cognitive decline: A 13-year longitudinal study of Chinese older adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-12, February.
    20. Angelini, Viola & Mierau, Jochen O. & Viluma, Laura, 2021. "Socioeconomic Conditions in Childhood and Mental Health Later in Life," GLO Discussion Paper Series 844, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:10:p:3451-:d:358592. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.