INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 11 Program Schedule 02/17/2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120) Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology \| Education/Training \| Professional Practice Issues Final Abstract #76 Crime: A Proxy for Neighborhood Resources and its Moderating Effect on Physical Functioning in Predicting Cognitive Change in Mexican American Older Adulthood Joshua Owens, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States Lucia Cavanagh, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States Weidi Qin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States Irving Vega, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States Soham Al Snih, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, United States Category: Inclusion and Diversity/Multiculturalism Keyword 1: aging (normal) Keyword 2: diversity Keyword 3: minority issues Objective: A growing body of social determinants of health research has shown that neighborhood level factors are associated with individual level health outcomes. Specifically, findings suggest that older adults living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to perform worse on cognitive measures. A potential explanation is that disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to be disproportionally impacted by crime, which may reduce physical activity and partially explain the association between neighborhood deprivation and cognition. We sought to examine the interaction between physical functioning and crime as a predictor of cognitive change in Mexican American older adults without cognitive impairment at baseline. Participants and Methods: Participants were 1,189 Mexican Americans aged 74-109 (mean=80.34, 62% female) with an average education of 6.04 years from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (HEPESE; 2004-2005 to 2012-2013). HEPESE data were linked with county level variables from the 2010 National Neighborhood Data Archive, a publicly available dataset containing measures of the physical, economic, demographic, and social environment. Cognitive function served as the outcome of interest and was measured with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Individuals with a score less than 21 at baseline were excluded. Total crime consisted of the number of murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, motor vehicle thefts, and arsons. Physical functioning was assessed using a performance-based test. Data were analyzed via multi-level modeling controlling for urbanicity, nativity, cardiovascular risk factors, financial strain, mood, age, education, and sex. Results: An intermediate model containing all variables, but no interaction term indicated that physical functioning (B= .180, se=.038, p<.001) and crime (B= .519, se=.184, p=.005) were significantly associated with less decline in MMSE score across 4 time points. Our final model demonstrated a significant three-way interaction (B= -.028, se=.1011, p=.011) between physical functioning, crime, and time. Decomposition showed a survival effect in that among individuals who were classified as having low physical functioning, higher crime rates were associated with less cognitive decline. In middle and higher physical functioning groups this effect no longer reached significance. When group characteristics were examined more closely, individuals from “high crime” areas were significantly less likely to report financial concerns. Furthermore, these individuals tended to live in areas with a greater numbers of reporting agencies that collect crime data. Conclusions: Initially our results seemed to suggest that higher crime was associated with less cognitive decline. However, further investigation revealed that county level crime served as a proxy for resources to monitor crime. Living in areas with more resources to monitor crime provides a protective effect that significantly slows cognitive decline in older adulthood above and beyond individual level socioeconomic status, cardiovascular risk, and education. The current study is limited in that we only had access to a cognitive screener as our outcome of interest. Future work should seek to replicate our findings using a more robust cognitive battery.

Poster

02/17/2024
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)

Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology | Education/Training | Professional Practice Issues

Final Abstract #76

Crime: A Proxy for Neighborhood Resources and its Moderating Effect on Physical Functioning in Predicting Cognitive Change in Mexican American Older Adulthood

Joshua Owens, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
Lucia Cavanagh, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
Weidi Qin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States
Irving Vega, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
Soham Al Snih, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, United States

Category: Inclusion and Diversity/Multiculturalism

Keyword 1: aging (normal)
Keyword 2: diversity
Keyword 3: minority issues

Objective:

A growing body of social determinants of health research has shown that neighborhood level factors are associated with individual level health outcomes. Specifically, findings suggest that older adults living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to perform worse on cognitive measures. A potential explanation is that disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to be disproportionally impacted by crime, which may reduce physical activity and partially explain the association between neighborhood deprivation and cognition. We sought to examine the interaction between physical functioning and crime as a predictor of cognitive change in Mexican American older adults without cognitive impairment at baseline.

Participants and Methods:

Participants were 1,189 Mexican Americans aged 74-109 (mean=80.34, 62% female) with an average education of 6.04 years from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (HEPESE; 2004-2005 to 2012-2013). HEPESE data were linked with county level variables from the 2010 National Neighborhood Data Archive, a publicly available dataset containing measures of the physical, economic, demographic, and social environment. Cognitive function served as the outcome of interest and was measured with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Individuals with a score less than 21 at baseline were excluded. Total crime consisted of the number of murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, motor vehicle thefts, and arsons. Physical functioning was assessed using a performance-based test. Data were analyzed via multi-level modeling controlling for urbanicity, nativity, cardiovascular risk factors, financial strain, mood, age, education, and sex.

Results:

An intermediate model containing all variables, but no interaction term indicated that physical functioning (B= .180, se=.038, p<.001) and crime (B= .519, se=.184, p=.005) were significantly associated with less decline in MMSE score across 4 time points. Our final model demonstrated a significant three-way interaction (B= -.028, se=.1011, p=.011) between physical functioning, crime, and time. Decomposition showed a survival effect in that among individuals who were classified as having low physical functioning, higher crime rates were associated with less cognitive decline. In middle and higher physical functioning groups this effect no longer reached significance. When group characteristics were examined more closely, individuals from “high crime” areas were significantly less likely to report financial concerns. Furthermore, these individuals tended to live in areas with a greater numbers of reporting agencies that collect crime data.

Conclusions:

Initially our results seemed to suggest that higher crime was associated with less cognitive decline. However, further investigation revealed that county level crime served as a proxy for resources to monitor crime. Living in areas with more resources to monitor crime provides a protective effect that significantly slows cognitive decline in older adulthood above and beyond individual level socioeconomic status, cardiovascular risk, and education. The current study is limited in that we only had access to a cognitive screener as our outcome of interest. Future work should seek to replicate our findings using a more robust cognitive battery.