ArticleInternational psychogeriatrics2021
Childhood infectious diseases and old age cognitive functioning: a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults.
Article in International psychogeriatrics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive impairment and dementia-Are they linked to childhood health and socioeconomic status? A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Exposures and conditions prior to age 16 are associated with incidence of dementia status among adults in the United States Health and Retirement Study.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2025Article
- Article
- Impact of Childhood Adversity on Late-Life Cognition in Older Puerto Rican Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Infectious diseases and cognition: do we have to worry?Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2022Review
- Baseline Infection Burden and Cognitive Function in Elders with Essential Tremor.Tremor and other hyperkinetic movements (New York, N.Y.) · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCumulative evidence suggests that health-related risk factors during midlife and old-age are associated with cognitive impairment. However, studies are needed to clarify the association between early-life risk factors and impaired cognitive functioning to increment existing knowledge.
objectiveTo examine the association between childhood infectious diseases and late-life cognitive functioning in a nationally representative sample of older adults.
participantsEligible respondents were 2994 community-dwelling individuals aged 65-85. MEASUREMENTS: Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Childhood infectious diseases (i.e. chicken pox, measles, and mumps) were self-reported. The study covariates were age, sex, highest educational level achieved, smoking status, body mass index, and depression. The primary statistical analysis examined the association between the number of childhood infectious diseases and total MMSE scores, accounting for all study covariates. Regression models of progressive complexity were examined for parsimony. The robustness of the primary results was tested in 17 sensitivity analyses.
resultsThe most parsimonious model was a linear adjusted model (Bayesian Information Criterion = 12646.09). Late-life cognitive functioning significantly improved as the number of childhood infectious diseases increased (β = 0.18; 95% CI = 0.11, 0.26; p < 0.001). This effect was not significantly attenuated in all sensitivity analyses.
conclusionThe current study results are consistent with prior ecological findings indicating that some childhood infectious diseases are associated with better cognitive functioning in old-age. This points to an early-life modifiable risk factor associated with older-life cognitive functioning. Our results may reflect selective mortality and/or beneficial effects via hormetic processes.
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