Older adults are one of the fastest growing groups affected by housing instability. Each year approximately 168,000 people above 65 are faced with eviction. In a new NIH-supported study, researchers explored how growing housing instability is linked to health and found a connection between experiencing a home foreclosure and faster memory decline.
Researchers analyzed 10 years of data from 15,766 participants in the Health & Retirement Study and found that foreclosure experienced by adults aged 50-64 was linked to faster memory decline—equivalent to aging an extra 3.7 years over a decade. The researchers hypothesize that these cognitive deficits were driven by foreclosures’ potential effects on many factors that affect health, including stress, cardiovascular health-related behaviors, and social isolation. This study reveals that housing instability is an important facet of neurological health. The authors note that although they observed an association, not enough data is available to say whether housing instability caused the cognitive decline. They suggested more robust future studies on housing stability and cognitive health, for which their current research could serve as a model.
This study was led by Min Hee Kim, Ph.D., and Gabriel L. Schwartz, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Drexel University supported by the NIH Common Fund Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program. Drexel University is one of six institutions in the first of three recruitment cycles of groups of faculty to catalyze and sustain innovative biomedical research. To-date, the 15 grantee institutions of FIRST awards support 117 faculty across the biomedical sciences. This work highlights the FIRST program’s role in advancing new, interdisciplinary knowledge, and enabling subsequent research.
Foreclosure, memory decline, and dementia probability: A longitudinal cohort study. Kim MH, Schwartz GL. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Sep;20(9):6517-6526. doi: 10.1002/alz.14145. Epub 2024 Jul 29. PMID: 39072906; PMCID: PMC11497684.
