Adverse childhood environment and late-life cognitive functioning

✍ Scribed by Karen Ritchie; Isabelle Jaussent; Robert Stewart; Anne-Marie Dupuy; Philippe Courtet; Alain Malafosse; Marie-Laure Ancelin

• Book ID: 102226648
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 142 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.2553

✦ Synopsis

Objective: Clinical studies suggest that childhood maltreatment may cause nervous system changes and consequent cognitive disorder. The persistence of this association in late-life is examined. Methods: Cognitive functioning and childhood events were examined in 1282 persons over 65 years, taking into account proximal competing causes of poor cognitive performance. Results: Ninety one per cent experienced at least one adverse childhood event, of these 14.7% severe events. Sharing of parental problems and, for women, loss of a parent were associated with poorer verbal retrieval whereas being sent to a foster home or mistreatment by schoolmates was associated with poorer visuospatial memory. Severe abuse was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment on some tests suggesting a resilience factor. Positive childhood environment was protective although only for noncarriers of the ApoE e4 allele on the central executive task. Conclusions: Some adverse childhood events continue to have a negative effect on later-life cognitive performance, while some more severe acute events may have the opposite effect, underlying the necessity to consider events individually and not as global test scores.