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Higher Number of Children Is Associated With Increased Risk of Generalization Deficits in Older African American Women.
- Source :
- Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences; Aug2024, Vol. 79 Issue 8, p1-7, 7p
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Objectives The objectives of this project were to: (1) examine the relationship between the number of biological children and hippocampal-dependent cognitive performance among older African American women and (2) determine the influence of socioeconomic status (i.e. age, education, marital status, median household income), if any, on this relationship. Methods A total of 146 cognitively unimpaired African American women aged 60 and older were recruited from the greater Newark area and reported their number of biological children, marital status, educational level, and age. We retrieved median household income from census tract data based on the participants' addresses. Participants' cognitive performance was assessed using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) long delay recall and a Rutgers generalization task (Concurrent Discrimination and Transfer Task). Results As the number of biological children a woman has had increases, the number of generalization errors also increased, indicating poorer hippocampal-dependent cognitive performance when controlling for age, education, marital status, and median household income. There was no significant relationship between the number of children and performance on a standardized neuropsychological measure of episodic memory (RAVLT), although education was a significant covariate. Discussion Generalization tasks may better capture early changes in cognitive performance in older African American women who have had children than standardized neuropsychological assessments. This finding may be explained by the fluctuations in estrogen associated with having children. Future studies should explore how these findings can be applied to protecting cognitive function and preventing Alzheimer's disease in older African American women who have had children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- COGNITIVE testing
AFRICAN Americans
ALZHEIMER'S disease
INCOME
RESEARCH funding
SOCIOECONOMIC factors
ESTROGEN
ANALYSIS of covariance
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
ADOPTED children
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL tests
MARITAL status
PSYCHOMETRICS
SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC factors
HIPPOCAMPUS (Brain)
WOMEN'S health
DATA analysis software
EDUCATIONAL attainment
OLD age
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10795014
- Volume :
- 79
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 178778706
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae110