BACKGROUND: Prior findings on adverse childhood events (ACEs) and late-life cognitive outcomes are inconsistent, with very little evidence from diverse racial/ethnic groups.
METHODS: Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences (KHANDLE) study baseline participants, aged 65 years and older (n=1,708; including 415 Asian-American, 348 Latino, 443 Black, and 502 White participants), self-reported experiences of 9 ACEs, including age of earliest occurrence (categorized as 0-6, 7-12, and 13-16 years). Verbal memory, executive function, and semantic memory were assessed with the Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales. A mixed model indicated no evidence of domain-specific effects, so the 3 domains were combined into a z-scored composite. Using covariate-adjusted linear regression models, we assessed associations of exposure to any ACE, age of exposure, and type of ACE with global cognition overall and by race/ethnicity.
RESULTS: Most respondents (68%) reported experiencing one or more ACE, most frequently family illness (36%), domestic violence (23%), and parental divorce (22%). ACE count was not associated with cognition overall (b=0.01; 95% CI: -.02, .04, within any racial/ethnic group, or for any age-category of exposure. Among Asian Americans, each additional ACE was associated with slightly better cognitive scores for Asian Americans (b= 0.09; 95% CI, 02, .17). Overall, loss of job by parents was associated with better cognitive scores (b=0.14; 95% CI, 0.04, 0.25), while death of mother (b=-0.23; 95% CI, -0.41, -0.05), and death of father (b=-0.09; 95% CI, 0.23, 0.04) were associated with worse cognitive scores. There were no significant differences by race/ethnicity.
CONCLUSION: A count of childhood adverse exposures did not predict worse cognition in older adults in a diverse sample, although parental death was associated with worse cognitive outcomes.
