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Childhood head injury, control beliefs, and later life cognitive function in the Health and Retirement Study
Author(s) -
Turner Robert
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.046626
Subject(s) - dementia , psychosocial , closed head injury , head injury , health and retirement study , cognition , context (archaeology) , psychology , traumatic brain injury , working memory , medicine , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , gerontology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , paleontology , biology , disease , macroeconomics , pathology , economics
Background Mild traumatic brain injury earlier in life is a risk for dementia later in life. While research has rightly focused attention on strategies for reducing the risk of incurring brain injury in youth, less attention has been paid to potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia in the context of a sustained childhood brain injury. Psychosocial resources may play an important role in mitigating the risk of dementia associated with early life brain injury. We investigated the role of control beliefs in the relationship between early life brain injury and cognitive functioning in the Health and Retirement Study. Method Data were from four biennial waves of HRS, combining 2006 and 2008 (time 1) and 2010 and 2012 (time 2) (n=5,999). A linear regression model evaluated the relationship between self‐reported head injury ("Before you were 16 years old, did you have a blow to the head, a head injury or head trauma that was severe enough to require medical attention, to cause loss of consciousness or memory loss for a period of time") and perceived control at time 1. A second examined the relationship between self‐reported head injury at time 1 and working memory (immediate and delayed recall) at time 2, controlling for working memory at time 1. A final model examined control beliefs as a potential mediator. Controls included age, race, gender, depression, health conditions, education, and income. Result Mean age was 65.4 years, 78.2% White, 10.1% Black, 5% Latino, 6.5% other, and 10.1 percent reported early head injury. Those with a history of head injury in childhood reported lower personal control beliefs at time 1 (p<.001). History of childhood head injury (time 1) were modestly associated with working memory at time 2, after controlling for baseline working memory (p<.05). Control beliefs partially mediated this relationship. Conclusion HRS respondents with a self‐reported history of head injury in childhood reported lower personal control beliefs. In turn, control beliefs mediated the relationship between early head injury and later life working memory. Personal control beliefs may be an important modifiable risk for cognitive decline among those with a history of childhood head injury.