Decline in Literacy and Incident AD Dementia Among Community-Dwelling Older Persons

Objective: To quantify longitudinal change in financial and health literacy and examine the associations of declining literacy with incident Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Method: Data came from 799 participants of an ongoing cohort study. Literacy was measured using a battery of 32 questions. Clinical diagnoses were made annually following uniform structured procedures. The associations of declining literacy with incident AD dementia and MCI were tested using a joint model for longitudinal and time-to-event data. Results: We observed an overall decline in total literacy score over up to 6 years of follow-up (p < .001). Faster decline in literacy was associated with higher risks for incident AD dementia (hazard ratio = 4.526, 95% confidence interval = [2.993, 6.843], p < .001) and incident MCI (hazard ratio = 2.971, 95% confidence interval = [1.509, 5.849], p = .002). Discussion: Declining literacy among community-dwelling older persons predicts adverse cognitive outcomes and serves as an early indicator of impending dementia.

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