UCL Study Ties 2,759 Britons' Long-Term Financial Strain to Faster Brain Aging
Updated
Updated · Newsweek · Jul 24
UCL Study Ties 2,759 Britons' Long-Term Financial Strain to Faster Brain Aging
3 articles · Updated · Newsweek · Jul 24
Summary
Brain scans and cognitive tests from 2,759 Britons born in 1946 linked repeated low income or bill-paying difficulty across early and middle adulthood to worse thinking skills by age 53 and more brain shrinkage at 69-71.
Decades of follow-up let UCL researchers show that accumulated hardship—not occasional setbacks—tracked the worst outcomes, and the association held after adjusting for childhood intelligence, education and socioeconomic disadvantage.
Men, people with childhood disadvantage and carriers of the APOE-ε4 Alzheimer's-risk gene showed the strongest links, with researchers pointing to chronic stress, inflammation and unhealthy coping behaviors such as smoking and heavy drinking.
The findings suggest reducing chronic poverty could do more than ease financial stress, potentially lowering later-life cognitive decline and dementia risk.