Adults who faced persistent financial hardship showed poorer cognitive performance and signs of accelerated brain aging later in life, according to a new study.Researchers at University College London looked at 2,759 U.K.participants from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development born in 1946, as stated in a press release.Adults who reported experiencing persistent financial hardship or low income performed worse on cognitive tests that assessed verbal memory and processing speed.LONGER LIVES, WORSE HEALTH? SCIENTISTS UNCOVER TROUBLING TREND ACROSS GENERATIONSThose who had persistent low income also showed poorer brain health based on MRI scans, which measured markers of aging like brain shrinkage and enlarged ventricles.Adults who faced persistent financial hardship showed poorer cognitive performance and signs of accelerated brain aging later in life, according to a new study.
(iStock)"[While] we know well that cognitive decline is associated with both genetic risks and adverse childhood experience, we knew very little about what happens during the life course … particularly, the experience of persistent financial stress over the lifetime," study author Dr Jacques Wels from the Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL told Fox News Digital.ALZHEIMER'S BLOOD TESTS MAY PREDICT SYMPTOMS YEARS IN ADVANCE, BUT EXPERTS URGE CAUTION"The study clearly demonstrates … that the accumulation of poverty is linked to cognitive decline.We used different measures of lifecourse financial adversity and different measures of cognitive decline and they all show the same results, which makes the results solid."Participants who reported experiencing persistent financial hardship or low income performed worse on cognitive tests that assessed verbal memory and processing speed.
(iStock)The associations were strongest among men, people who had disadvantaged childhoods and carriers of the APOE-ε4 genetic variant that is linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease."The...