The influence of Area Deprivation Index on cognition in cognitively‐normal adults as measured by Principal Component Analysis of Neuropsychological Data

Background Previous research has demonstrated that neighborhood disadvantage is associated with worse health outcomes including increased risk for dementia. The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) measure represents the theoretical domains of income, education, employment, and housing quality, which allows for the ranking of neighborhoods based on socioeconomic disadvantage. In the present study, we hypothesized that greater neighborhood disadvantage (i.e., higher ADI scores) would be associated with lower cognitive function after controlling for age, education, and sex. Method Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to examine the component structure of a neuropsychological test battery administered to 852 adult participants enrolled in the Southern Illinois University Longitudinal Cognitive Aging Study (SIU LCAS). The vast majority of the cohort was White/Not Hispanic (>98.0%) and female (72.4%). Mean age and education were 67.5 years and 14.8 years, respectively. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between ADI and PCA cognitive component scores after controlling for age, education, and sex. Result PCA identified four cognitive components, which were labeled speed/flexibility, visuospatial skills, word list learning/memory, and story memory (immediate and delayed recall). Regression analysis revealed that all three demographic variables were significantly associated with each cognitive component score (p