Abstract
Objective: The objective of study is to examine the relationships between health status and changes in cognition over time among middle to older aged Blacks. Method: Data come from the Baltimore Study of Black Aging—Patterns of Cognitive Aging. At baseline, 602 Black participants, ranging from ages 48 to 95 years, were enrolled. At follow-up, approximately 3 years later, 450 participants were re-interviewed. Results: After accounting for baseline cognition, age, sex, and education, a greater number of health conditions was associated with slower perceptual speed (b = −5.099, p =.022). Average peak expiratory flow was also associated with improvements in working memory (b = 0.029, p =.019) and perceptual speed (b = 0.026, p =.026), controlling for model covariates. Discussion: Study findings demonstrate that greater disease burden is associated with declines in specific fluid cognitive abilities in middle to later life among Blacks. This finding highlights the importance of reducing health disparities that disproportionately affect Blacks.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 807-816 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Aging and Health |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 7-8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 1 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Black adults
- cognitive changes
- disease burden
- fluid and crystallized abilities
- lung function
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Life-span and Life-course Studies