Association of neighborhood and individual-level socioeconomic disadvantage in childhood and adulthood with cognitive function in mid-adulthood: Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Socioeconomic disadvantage at individual level is associated with poor cognitive outcomes but the link of neighborhood disadvantage with cognitive function is unclear. We used data from Young Finns Study, a population-based cohort, to examine the associations of neighborhood and individual-level disadvantage in childhood (age 3-21 years) and adulthood (age 22 up to the time of cognitive assessment) with cognitive function in mid-adulthood (age 35-49 years). Neighborhood disadvantage was ascertained based on register data, including geo-coded address history. Compared to individuals who experienced neither individual-level nor neighborhood disadvantage in childhood, those who experienced both had, on average, 0.236 SDs lower overall cognitive function scores (95% CI: -0.355 to -0.116) and those who experienced individual-level but not neighborhood disadvantage had 0.196 SDs lower scores (95% CI, -0.323 to -0.070). The estimates were slightly larger for adult individual-level and neighborhood disadvantage. The findings were similar across the cognitive domains and robust to adjustment for a polygenic risk score for cognitive ability. We found no clear evidence of sleep difficulties, depressive symptoms or cardiovascular health mediating the associations. Our findings suggest that socioeconomic disadvantage at individual-level but not neighborhood-level, from childhood to adulthood, may impact on cognitive function in mid-adulthood.