Place of Birth and Dementia Risk in Later Life: Evidence from the Stroke Belt

• In Event: 30860 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 1. Place-Based Studies of Health and Aging

Abstract

Prior research has examined how dementia risk differs by race, education, marital status, and other demographic characteristics. However, less is known about how place-based factors accumulate across the life course. Using restricted, nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study, this paper explores how being born in the Stroke Belt shapes dementia risk in later life. Baseline results and those factoring in competing risks of death and dropout revealed that those born in the Stroke Belt see a heightened risk of dementia in later life, even when accounting for early life adversity and later life factors of risk and resilience. Additional analyses that considered migration during childhood found that those exposed to the Stroke Belt for their entire childhood saw a heightened risk, suggesting that cumulative place-based disadvantage increases dementia risk later in the life course.

Author

• Michael S. Topping, University of Wisconsin-Madison