The Influence of Lifetime Occupational Experience on Cognitive Trajectories Among Mexican Older Adults

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PROJECT SUMMARY This F31 research and training program will contribute to research on occupation as a life course determinant of late-life cognitive function in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The program will prepare the trainee for an independent research career, specifically to conduct life course and social epidemiology research among aging populations in LMICs and underrepresented U.S. populations. The training plan aims to achieve (1) expertise in life course determinants of cognitive aging, (2) advanced proficiency in life course epidemiology methods, and (3) enhanced scholarly productivity and professional development. The trainee will work under the guidance of a Sponsor and Co-Sponsor, incorporating collaborators from multiple disciplines to ensure diversity in training, research, and professional networking. The research project examines life course determinants of cognitive function in late life, which can help identify long-term risk and protective factors among aging populations. In high-income countries, occupational complexity predicts better cognitive function in late life. This association, however, is understudied in LMICs because of the lack of objective measures of occupation complexity and longitudinal aging studies . The Mexican population, like many other LMICs , ages in the context of changing social and economic environments, and little is known about how these changes influence cognitive function trajectories. This project will use waves 1 to 6 (2001-2021) from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative longitudinal aging study, to examine the influence of lifetime occupation on cognitive function trajectories among a national sample of Mexican adults aged 50 and older. Unique to this study is the inclusion of women who are housewives. Another innovative aspect of this project is the use of a linkage between the MHAS occupations and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), a database with occupation-specific descriptors, such as mental demands to perform the job. Using the MHAS, this project will achieve the following aims: (1) Describe the lifetime occupational biographies of older adults in Mexico; (2) Examine the association between lifetime occupation mental demands and trajectories of cognitive function in old age; (3) Evaluate the combined effects of lifetime occupation and family transitions on late-life cognitive function for men compared to women. Occupational biographies include details such as occupation type, age at first job, number of years at work, if the participant ever migrated to the United States for work, and work benefits across the life course. Latent growth models will be used to identify the influence of mental demands of work on the cognitive trajectories of Mexican older adults. Groups based on family-work transitions, such as marrying early or late and entering the labor force early or late, will be created and used to identify how group membership affects cognitive trajectories in old age. The findings will explain how cognitive trajectories are influenced by occupation and how this effect varies for men and women due to gender differences in family-work transitions.