Associations of war-related exposures and early life adversity with late-life cognition.

Principal component analysis identified four distinct war exposure components among Vietnamese older adults.

• The four components identified were: harsh conditions and witnessing death, personal life threat/endangerment, family endangerment, and displacement.
• These components were derived from psychosocial assessments completed by VIP participants.
• The components were subsequently included in multivariable Bayesian regression models alongside an ELA composite.

Displacement was associated with lower executive function in late life.

• The displacement war exposure component showed a negative association with executive function scores.
• This finding was identified through multivariable Bayesian regression models.
• The sample included 548 VIP participants with a mean age of 73 years, 55% of whom were women.

Greater early life adversity (ELA) was associated with better executive function and language (semantic memory) scores.

• Contrary to expected directionality, higher ELA composite scores were associated with better, not worse, executive function.
• Greater ELA was also associated with better language/semantic memory scores.
• This finding was observed in multivariable Bayesian regression models controlling for war exposure components.

Family endangerment during war was associated with poorer visuospatial skills in late life.

• The family endangerment war exposure component showed a negative association with visuospatial skills.
• This association was identified in multivariable Bayesian regression models.
• Neuropsychological assessment included measures of global cognition, executive function, semantic memory, episodic memory, and visuospatial skills.

Depression and gender moderated the associations between war exposures/ELA and cognition.

• Depression was identified as a moderator of associations between the exposures and cognitive outcomes.
• Gender also moderated the associations between war exposures/ELA and cognition.
• These moderating effects suggest that the impact of adversity on cognitive aging differs across subgroups of participants.

The study sample consisted of Vietnamese older adults with a mean age of 73 years, the majority of whom were women.

• Total sample size was N = 548 participants in the Vietnamese Insights into Cognitive Aging Program (VIP).
• Mean age of participants was 73 years.
• 55% of participants were women.
• Participants completed both psychosocial and neuropsychological assessments.