Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28837862›Full record

ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2017

Childhood deprivation and later-life cognitive function in a population-based study of older rural South Africans.

Lindsay C Kobayashi, M Maria Glymour, Kathleen Kahn, Collin F Payne, Ryan G Wagner, Livia Montana, Farrah J Mateen, Stephen M Tollman, Lisa F Berkman

Open access · greenAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
53citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
27.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

53 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 77 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

Lindsay C KobayashiHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: kobayashi@hsph.harvard.edu.
M Maria GlymourHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Kathleen KahnMRC-Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; INDEPTH Network, Accra, Ghana; Epidemiology and Global Health Unit, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden.
Collin F PayneHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Ryan G WagnerMRC-Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; INDEPTH Network, Accra, Ghana.
Livia MontanaHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Farrah J MateenHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Stephen M TollmanMRC-Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; INDEPTH Network, Accra, Ghana; Epidemiology and Global Health Unit, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden.
Lisa F BerkmanHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, MA, USA; MRC-Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
University of the Witwatersrand · ZADana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center · USHarvard University · USUniversity of California, San Francisco · US

Funding

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PREDICTORS OF PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONP01AG041710 · NIA · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI LISA F BERKMAN, THOMAS A GAZIANO · 2013 to 2026
$37.3M
NIA NIH HHS P01 AG041710
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

rationaleLittle research has evaluated the life course drivers of cognitive aging in South Africa.

objectivesWe investigated the relationships of self-rated childhood health and father's occupation during childhood with later-life cognitive function score and whether educational attainment mediated these relationships among older South Africans living in a former region of Apartheid-era racial segregation.

methodsData were from baseline assessments of "Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community" (HAALSI), a population-based study of 5059 men and women aged ≥40 years in 2015 in rural Agincourt sub-district, South Africa. Childhood health, father's occupation during childhood, and years of education were self-reported in study interviews. Cognitive measures assessed time orientation, numeracy, and word recall, which were included in a z-standardized latent cognitive function score variable. Linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, and country of birth were used to estimate the total and direct effects of each childhood risk factor, and the indirect effects mediated by years of education.

resultsPoor childhood health predicted lower cognitive scores (total effect = -0.28; 95% CI = -0.35, -0.21, versus good); this effect was not mediated by educational attainment. Having a father in a professional job during childhood, while rare (3% of sample), predicted better cognitive scores (total effect = 0.25; 95% CI = 0.10, 0.40, versus unskilled manual labor, 29% of sample). Half of this effect was mediated by educational attainment. Education was linearly associated with later-life cognitive function score (0.09; 95% CI = 0.09, 0.10 per year achieved).

conclusionIn this post-Apartheid, rural South African context, older adults with poor self-reported childhood health or whose father worked in unskilled manual labor had relatively poor cognitive outcomes. Educational attainment strongly predicted cognitive outcomes, and appeared to be, in part, a mechanism of social stratification in later-life cognitive health in this context.

Indexed as

CognitionPsychosocial DeprivationAdultAgedAged, 80 and overAge FactorsAgingFactor Analysis, StatisticalFemaleHealth Status DisparitiesHumansLinear ModelsLongitudinal StudiesMaleMiddle AgedRisk FactorsAgingCognitive agingCognitive functionEducationRuralSelf-rated healthSocioeconomic conditionsSouth Africa

Identifiers

PMID28837862
PMCPMC5915343
OpenAlexW2748578928

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.