Lifelong financial hardship linked to measurable brain decline, study finds

Researchers at University College London linked persistent financial adversity, defined as sustained low household income or recurring financial hardships between ages 26 and 53, with lower processing speed and verbal memory scores at age 53, as well as measurable brain volume changes detected through neuroimaging at ages 69 to 71.

Approximately 16 percent reported persistent low household income and 12 percent reported persistent financial hardships across the study period, defined as falling in the bottom 20 percent of the analytical sample at two or more of three measured time points.

One test measured how quickly participants could think and react, a skill that tends to slow down as we age. By age 53, people who had spent years on low incomes scored noticeably lower on this test than those who had always had enough money. It wasn’t a dramatic gap, but it was consistent and suggest that years of financial stress had already begun to slow down how fast their brains were working, even before they reached retirement age.

Brain scans showed that for people who had lived on low incomes for many years, parts of the brain had shrunk. The longer and more consistently someone struggled financially, the more pronounced those changes tended to be. In other words, years of financial hardship left a visible mark on the brain itself.

Who is most at risk?

The research identified three groups facing disproportionately higher cognitive risk when combined with persistent financial adversity: men, individuals from disadvantaged childhood socioeconomic backgrounds, and carriers of the APOE-ε4 gene — the primary genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.