Researchers at University College London looked at 2,759 U.K. participants from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development born in 1946, as stated in a press release.<\/p>\n
Adults who reported experiencing persistent financial hardship or low income performed worse on cognitive tests<\/a> that assessed verbal memory and processing speed.<\/p>\n LONGER LIVES, WORSE HEALTH? SCIENTISTS UNCOVER TROUBLING TREND ACROSS GENERATIONS<\/a><\/p>\n Those who had persistent low income also showed poorer brain health based on MRI scans, which measured markers of aging like brain shrinkage and enlarged ventricles.<\/p>\n Adults who faced persistent financial hardship showed poorer cognitive performance and signs of accelerated brain aging later in life, according to a new study. (iStock)<\/p>\n “[While] we know well that cognitive decline is associated with both genetic risks and adverse childhood experience, we knew very little about what happens during the life course \u2026 particularly, the experience of persistent financial stress<\/a> over the lifetime,” study author Dr Jacques Wels from the Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n ALZHEIMER’S BLOOD TESTS MAY PREDICT SYMPTOMS YEARS IN ADVANCE, BUT EXPERTS URGE CAUTION<\/a><\/p>\n “The study clearly demonstrates \u2026 that the accumulation of poverty is linked to cognitive decline. We used different measures of lifecourse financial adversity and different measures of cognitive decline and they all show the same results, which makes the results solid.”<\/p>\n Participants who reported experiencing persistent financial hardship or low income performed worse on cognitive tests that assessed verbal memory and processing speed. (iStock)<\/p>\n The associations were strongest among men, people who had disadvantaged childhoods and carriers of the APOE-\u03b54 genetic variant that is linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The study shows that [while] cognitive decline is both a matter of genetic risks and individual behaviors, it is also affected by the experiences we live over our lives that we don\u2019t always have control on,” Wels added.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n Based on the findings, the researchers suggested that chronic financial adversity over decades, rather than short-term periods of hardship, is linked to faster cognitive aging<\/a>.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES<\/a><\/p>\n This could be the result of chronic stress<\/a> leading to inflammation or increased cognitive load from persistent financial worry, the authors proposed.<\/p>\n There were some limitations of the study, including that its observational design could not prove that the financial stress caused the cognitive effects.<\/p>\n Those who had persistent low income also showed poorer brain health based on MRI scans, which measured markers of aging like brain shrinkage and enlarged ventricles. (iStock)<\/p>\n “We are looking at a cohort of people born in 1946 \u2013 so their life course experience is really dependent on the context they lived in,” Wels noted. “For instance, we found stronger effects among males<\/a>, which reflects the \u2018breadwinner\u2019 role of men in older cohorts, something we might not observe in more recent generations.”<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n Even after accounting for many other factors that could influence brain health<\/a>, it’s still possible that unmeasured variables may have affected the results, the study authors acknowledged.<\/p>\n![\"Couple](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/couple-worried-about-money.jpg\")
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