Poverty may cause early ageing: study

Poverty and perceived hardship among young people may put them at the risk of worse cognitive function and premature ageing, a new study has warned, reports PTI.

Previous research has shown that exposure to poor socioeconomic conditions during childhood, adulthood, or cumulatively, is associated with cognitive deficits.

"Income is dynamic and individuals are likely to experience income changes and mobility especially between young adulthood and midlife," said lead investigator Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri from the University of Miami in the US.

"Monitoring changes in income and financial difficulty over an extended period of time and how these influence cognitive health is of great public health interest," she said.

Zeki Al Hazzouri and her colleagues examined the effects of sustained poverty and perceived financial difficulty on cognitive function in midlife using income data for about 3,400 adults who took part in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) prospective cohort study.

The CARDIA study included black and white males and females 18 to 30 years of age at the start of the study in 1985-86.