Browsing by Author "Emily P Morris"

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    Subjective social position and cognitive function in a longitudinal cohort of older, rural South African adults, 2014–2019
    (2021-09-23) Lindsay C Kobayashi; Emily P Morris; Guy Harling; Meagan T Farrell; Mohammed U Kabeto; Ryan G Wagner; Lisa F Berkman
    Background The relationship between subjective social position (SSP) and cognitive ageing unclear, especially in low-income settings. We aimed to investigate the relationship between SSP and cognitive function over time among older adults in rural South Africa. Methods Data were from 3771 adults aged ≥40 in the population-representative ’Health and Ageing in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa’ from 2014/2015 (baseline) to 2018/2019 (followup). SSP was assessed at baseline with the 10-rung MacArthur Network social position ladder. Outcomes were composite orientation and episodic memory scores at baseline and follow-up (range: 0–24). Mortality- and attrition-weighted linear regression estimated the associations between baseline SSP with cognitive scores at each of the baseline and follow-up. Models were adjusted for age, age2 , sex, country of birth, father’s occupation, education, employment, household assets, literacy, marital status and health-related covariates. Results SSP responses ranged from 0 (bottom ladder rung/lowest social position) to 10 (top ladder rung/ highest social position), with a mean of 6.6 (SD: 2.3). SSP was positively associated with baseline cognitive score (adjusted β=0.198 points per ladder rung increase; 95%CI 0.145 to 0.253) and follow-up cognitive score (adjusted β=0.078 points per ladder rung increase; 95%CI 0.021 to 0.136). Conclusion Independent of objective socioeconomic position measures, SSP is associated with orientation and episodic memory scores over two time points approximately 3 years apart among older rural South Africans. Future research is needed to establish the causality of the observed relationships, whether they persist over longer follow-up periods and their consistency in other populations.