TY - JOUR
T1 - Greater Disease Burden, Greater Risk? Exploring Cognitive Change and Health Status Among Older Blacks
AU - Byrd, De Annah R.
AU - Thorpe, Roland J.
AU - Whitfield, Keith E.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Data for this article came from the Baltimore Study of Black Aging—Patterns of Cognitive Aging (R01 AG24108 and AG024108-02S1), which were supported by funds from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to Dr. Keith E. Whitfield. Dr. Roland J. Thorpe, Jr. was supported by a grant from NIA (P30AG059298).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Black adults
KW - cognitive changes
KW - disease burden
KW - fluid and crystallized abilities
KW - lung function
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U2 - 10.1177/0898264319853138
DO - 10.1177/0898264319853138
M3 - Article
C2 - 31165660
AN - SCOPUS:85067828619
SN - 0898-2643
VL - 32
SP - 807
EP - 816
JO - Journal of Aging and Health
JF - Journal of Aging and Health
IS - 7-8
ER -