April 11, 2025
Memory Trajectories Before and After a Negative Wealth Shock: The United States Health and Retirement Study, 1998–2020
At PAA2025, PSC and SRC affiliates Tsai-Chin Cho, Ashly Westrick, Sara Adar, Hwajung Choi, Kenneth Langa, and Lindsay Kobayashi present their research on Memory Trajectories Before and After a Negative Wealth Shock. Led by Tsai-Chin Cho, their study used data from 10,519 U.S. adults in the Health and Retirement Study to examine the long-term cognitive effects of wealth shocks.
Individuals who experienced a negative wealth shock, defined as an acute loss of ≥75% of household wealth over two years, had faster memory decline before the wealth shock and also showed an immediate drop in memory function following the wealth shock. Their results highlight the need for interventions to address the relationship between financial loss and cognitive aging in mid-to-late life adults.