Neighborhood Socioeconomic Resources and Crime-Related Psychosocial Hazards, Stroke Risk, and Cognition in Older Adults

Linda D. Ruiz, Molly Brown, Yan Li, Elizabeth A. Boots, Lisa L. Barnes, Leonard Jason, Shannon Zenk, Philippa Clarke and Melissa Lamar
Additional contact information
Linda D. Ruiz: College of Science and Health, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60604, USA
Molly Brown: College of Science and Health, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60604, USA
Yan Li: College of Science and Health, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60604, USA
Elizabeth A. Boots: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Lisa L. Barnes: Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Leonard Jason: College of Science and Health, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60604, USA
Shannon Zenk: Department of Health Systems Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Philippa Clarke: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Melissa Lamar: Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 10, 1-11

Abstract: Living in neighborhoods with lower incomes, lower education/occupational levels, and/or higher crime increases one’s risk of developing chronic health problems including cardiovascular disease risk factors and stroke. These cardiovascular health problems are known to contribute to cognitive decline and dementia. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of neighborhood socioeconomic resources and crime-related psychosocial hazards on stroke risk and cognition, hypothesizing that cardiovascular health would mediate any relationship between the neighborhood-level environment and cognition. The study evaluated 121 non-demented Chicago-area adults (~67 years; 40% non-Latino White) for cardiovascular health problems using the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile 10-year risk of stroke (FSRP-10). The cognitive domains that were tested included memory, executive functioning, and attention/information processing. Neighborhood socioeconomic resources were quantified at the census tract level (income, education, and occupation); crime-related psychosocial hazards were quantified at the point level. Structural equation modeling (SEM) did not show that the FSRP-10 mediated the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and domain-specific cognition. The SEM results did suggest that higher crime rates were associated with a higher FSRP-10 ( ? (105) = 2.38, p = 0.03) and that higher FSRP-10 is associated with reduced attention/information processing performance ( ? (105) = ?0.04, p = 0.02) after accounting for neighborhood socioeconomic resources. Clinicians may wish to query not only individual but also neighborhood-level health when considering cognition.

Keywords: crime; cardiovascular risk; attention; information processing; aging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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