scholarly journals Size at birth, lifecourse factors, and cognitive function in late life: findings from the MYsore study of Natal effects on Ageing and Health (MYNAH) cohort in South India

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Murali Krishna ◽  
Ghattu V. Krishnaveni ◽  
Veena Sargur ◽  
Kalyanaraman Kumaran ◽  
Mohan Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Birth Weight ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Early Life ◽  
South India ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Cardiometabolic Disorders ◽  
Size At Birth

ABSTRACT Objective: To examine if smaller size at birth, an indicator of growth restriction in utero, is associated with lower cognition in late life, and whether this may be mediated by impaired early life brain development and/or adverse cardiometabolic programming. Design: Longitudinal follow-up of a birth cohort. Setting: CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital (HMH), Mysore South India. Participants: 721 men and women (55–80 years) whose size at birth was recorded at HMH. Approximately 20 years earlier, a subset (n = 522) of them had assessments for cardiometabolic disorders in mid-life. Measurements: Standardized measurement of cognitive function, depression, sociodemographic, and lifestyle factors; blood tests and assessments for cardiometabolic disorders Results: Participants who were heavier at birth had higher composite cognitive scores (0.12 SD per SD birth weight [95% CI 0.05, 0.19] p = 0.001) in late life. Other lifecourse factors independently positively related to cognition were maternal educational level and participants’ own educational level, adult leg length, body mass index, and socioeconomic position, and negatively were diabetes in mid-life and current depression and stroke. The association of birth weight with cognition was independent cardiometabolic risk factors and was attenuated after adjustment for all lifecourse factors (0.08 SD per SD birth weight [95% CI −0.01, 0.18] p = 0.07). Conclusions: The findings are consistent with positive effects of early life environmental factors (better fetal growth, education, and childhood socioeconomic status) on brain development resulting in greater long-term cognitive function. The results do not support a pathway linking poorer fetal development with reduced late life cognitive function through cardiometabolic programming.

scholarly journals Education and Cognitive Functioning Across the Life Span

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lövdén ◽  
Laura Fratiglioni ◽  
M. Maria Glymour ◽  
Ulman Lindenberger ◽  
Elliot M. Tucker-Drob
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Positive Effects

Cognitive abilities are important predictors of educational and occupational performance, socioeconomic attainment, health, and longevity. Declines in cognitive abilities are linked to impairments in older adults’ everyday functions, but people differ from one another in their rates of cognitive decline over the course of adulthood and old age. Hence, identifying factors that protect against compromised late-life cognition is of great societal interest. The number of years of formal education completed by individuals is positively correlated with their cognitive function throughout adulthood and predicts lower risk of dementia late in life. These observations have led to the propositions that prolonging education might (a) affect cognitive ability and (b) attenuate aging-associated declines in cognition. We evaluate these propositions by reviewing the literature on educational attainment and cognitive aging, including recent analyses of data harmonized across multiple longitudinal cohort studies and related meta-analyses. In line with the first proposition, the evidence indicates that educational attainment has positive effects on cognitive function. We also find evidence that cognitive abilities are associated with selection into longer durations of education and that there are common factors (e.g., parental socioeconomic resources) that affect both educational attainment and cognitive development. There is likely reciprocal interplay among these factors, and among cognitive abilities, during development. Education–cognitive ability associations are apparent across the entire adult life span and across the full range of education levels, including (to some degree) tertiary education. However, contrary to the second proposition, we find that associations between education and aging-associated cognitive declines are negligible and that a threshold model of dementia can account for the association between educational attainment and late-life dementia risk. We conclude that educational attainment exerts its influences on late-life cognitive function primarily by contributing to individual differences in cognitive skills that emerge in early adulthood but persist into older age. We also note that the widespread absence of educational influences on rates of cognitive decline puts constraints on theoretical notions of cognitive aging, such as the concepts of cognitive reserve and brain maintenance. Improving the conditions that shape development during the first decades of life carries great potential for improving cognitive ability in early adulthood and for reducing public-health burdens related to cognitive aging and dementia.

Early life linguistic ability, late life cognitive function, and neuropathology: findings from the Nun Study

2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn P. Riley ◽  
David A. Snowdon ◽  
Mark F. Desrosiers ◽  
William R. Markesbery
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Linguistic Ability ◽  
Nun Study

scholarly journals Size at birth and cognitive function among rural adolescents: a life course epidemiology study protocol of the Kisalaya cohort in Mysuru, South India

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e000789
Author(s):  
Smitha Malenahalli Chandrashekarappa ◽  
Murali Krishna ◽  
Karl Krupp ◽  
Poornima Jaykrishna ◽  
Chaithra V Urs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Antenatal Care ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Low Income ◽  
South India ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Cardiometabolic Disorders ◽  
Mobile Clinics ◽  
Size At Birth

IntroductionIt is proven that adverse intrauterine environment results in ‘early life programming,’ alterations in metabolism and physiological development of the fetus, often termed as ‘Developmental Origins of Health and Disease’ (DOHaD) resulting in a smaller size at birth, greater non-communicable diseases (NCD) risk factors during childhood and adolescence, and cardiometabolic disorders in adulthood. Nevertheless, very few studies have examined the relationship between DOHaD programming and cognition. This study aims to examine if impaired prenatal growth indicated by birth weight is associated with cognition among adolescents in the Kisalaya cohort, a rural birth cohort in South India, thus providing newer insights into DOHaD programming for adolescent mental health in a low-income and middle-income country setting.Methods and analysisKisalaya cohort was established in 2008, to provide integrated antenatal care and HIV testing using mobile clinics to improve maternal and child health outcomes. This cohort included pregnant women residing in 144 villages of Mysuru Taluk (rural) who received antenatal care through mobile clinics and delivered their children between 2008 and 2011. Data related to mother–infant dyads for all pregnant women who received care in the Kisalaya programme are available for this study. Presently, children born to women who received care through Kisalaya are adolescents between 10 and 12 years. At this point, information would be collected on sociodemographic data and assessments of mental health, stressful life events, cognition, vision, speech, language, hearing and anthropometric measures would be done and relevant maternal data and child data, available from the cohort would be retracted for analysis. We plan to retrace as many adolescents as possible out of 1544 adolescents who are currently available for study excluding twins, abortions, stillbirths and postdelivery deaths. Analyses will be extended to construct a life course pathway for cognition using structural equation modelling.

Abstract T P159: Cardiovascular Health and Subsequent Cognitive Function in Patients with Pre-existing Coronary Heart Disease.

Stroke ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tanne ◽  
Galit Weinstein ◽  
Noa Molshatzki ◽  
Uri Goldbourt
Keyword(s):  
Coronary Heart Disease ◽  
Heart Disease ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Health Behavior ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Cognitive Score ◽  
Early Life Environment ◽  
Health Factors

Background: Cardiovascular (CV) health factors are associated with lower risk of CV disease, stroke and all-cause mortality. We used a CV health metric in order to examine association with subsequent cognitive function. Methods: A subset of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) that participated in the secondary prevention BIP trial were assessed for cognitive function (Mindstream Computerized Cognitive Battery) after an average of 9.8 ±1.7 years. A CV health metric at baseline was calculated including 3 health factors (glucose, LDL cholesterol, and blood pressure), 4 health behaviors (BMI, physical activity, adherence to a Mediterranean diet, and cigarette smoking), and one marker assessing in-part early life environment (body height), categorizing each of these 8 factors into ideal (2 points), intermediate (1 point), and poor levels (0 points). Results: Among 310 patients (mean age 62 yrs, 96.5% men) higher CV health scores were positively associated with educational level (p<0.001) and inversely with age (p=0.003), while no significant associations were identified with ultrasound indices of cerebrovascular disease (impaired CVR, increased common carotid IMT and carotid plaques). In linear regression models adjusted for age, educational level, sex and BIP study arm, increment in the overall CV health score (per 1 point) was associated with higher scores in executive function (p=0.002), memory (p=0.06), visuospatial function (p=0.005), attention (p=0.024) as well as in a global cognitive function score [B coefficient ± SE, 1.19±0.35 (p=0.001)] assessed a decade later. Increment (per 1-point) in the health behavior component was associated with 1.28±0.49 (p=0.009) higher cognitive score, in the early life environment component with 2.55±0.75 (p=0.001) higher cognitive score, while the health factors component was not associated with subsequent cognitive scores [0.24±0.52 (p=0.64)]. In sensitivity analyses excluding patients with stroke similar findings were observed. Conclusion: Among patients with pre-existing CHD, better CV health is associated with subsequent higher cognitive functions. Our findings suggest that health behavior and early life environment are important determinants of late-life cognitive function.

Relation of early-life cognitive activity to late-life cognitive function

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Lisa L. Barnes ◽  
Robert S. Wilson ◽  
Carlos F. Mendes de Leon ◽  
Laurel A. Beckett ◽  
David A. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Late Life

scholarly journals Early- to Late-Life Environmental Factors and Late-Life Global Cognition: The SONIC study

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 363-363
Author(s):  
Yoshiko Ishioka ◽  
Yasuyuki Gondo ◽  
Yukie Masui ◽  
Takeshi Nakagawa ◽  
Madoka Ogawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Global Cognition ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Life environment across the life course—such as engagement in late-life leisure activity (LA), primary occupation, and early-life education—have been reported to be associated with better late-life cognitive outcomes. However, few studies have included all these factors from the past to the present due to the time-consuming procedure to measure all factors. This study examined (1) whether late-life LA is associated with better late-life cognition, after considering other life environments and (2) whether occupation, education, and childhood intelligence quotient have indirect effects on the late-life cognition through late-life LA. We used baseline data from the groups of 70- and 80-year-olds in the SONIC study (N = 1721 ). Global cognition was measured using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. As for LA, participants were asked for yes/no answers to questions regarding their engagement in 158 activities. A latent factor representing LA was used in the analyses. We retrospectively evaluated the complexity of work with data, people, and things. As early-life environments, education and language and arithmetic abilities during elementary school were included in the analyses. Age and gender were controlled. A structural equation model showed that late-life LA was significantly associated with higher global cognition, even after controlling for all past factors (RMSEA = .050, GFI = .973, AGFI = .947). Sobel tests showed significant indirect effects of occupation, education, and childhood abilities on cognitive function. Results were robust across age and gender. It is suggested that engagement in LA explains individual differences in late-life cognitive function.

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