Chronic money worries may quietly affect the way the brain ages, a new study has found.
By age 53, people who have experienced economic hardship in their lives showed reduced cognitive function compared to those who hadn’t struggled with money, based on the analysis of 2,759 people in the United Kingdom.
“The accumulation of hardship over many years (…) is linked to the worst cognitive health outcomes, rather than occasional episodes of adversity,” said Jacques Wels, a researcher at University College London.
People who experienced persistent money struggles or persistent low income in early and middle adulthood performed less well in cognitive tests by the age of 53 and showed significant brain atrophy by age 71.
The researchers also found that these participants had a slower rate of decline for verbal memory between ages 53 and 69, suggesting that substantial cognitive losses had already occurred by midlife.
According to the authors, this relationship can be attributed to financial adversity increasing cognitive load, which reduces the cognitive bandwidth available for processes such as attention and decision-making.
“Persistent experience of financial adversity in adulthood, therefore, may place chronic stress on the systems involved in cognitive processing and lead to cognitive impairments over time,” they wrote.
The study also found that the impact of financial stress on the ageing brain is significantly worse for men, people from disadvantaged childhoods, and those with a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s.
Need for healthier ageing
Preventing financial adversity from becoming chronic could also help protect against age-related cognitive impairments and disorders such as dementia, the study added.
Dementia is one of the leading global health burdens, affecting 57 million people in 2019 and with cases expected to triple to over 150 million by 2050.
For this reason, research is increasingly focused on finding "modifiable" factors – things we can change to slow down cognitive ageing and prevent the onset of the disease.
Given the current climate of the cost-of-living crisis, in which a record number of households are reporting financial hardship, the authors noted that the study findings further illustrate the importance of supporting those who are financially vulnerable.
“Our findings suggest that supporting people facing financial hardship and reducing chronic poverty could also help prevent cognitive decline and dementia cases in the future,” said Praveetha Patalay, senior author of the study.
