When assessing socioeconomic status, researchers typically look at a combination of your income, years of education and occupation. Socioeconomic status refers to your ability to access resources such as health, information and services. Socioeconomic status has been closely linked to a range of health disorders, and dementia is no exception. Studies across multiple countries have shown people with higher socioeconomic status are less likely
This is unsurprising. People with high socioeconomic status are more likely to have the financial resources to access better healthcare, better education and better nutrition. They are also more likely to live in areas with more services that enable a healthy lifestyle My Research team and others have shown socioeconomic status an index that integrates average household income, unemployment rates, occupational skills and housing arrangements, among others, is associated with poorer memory and higher dementia risk Understanding this is complex. A wide range of economic, social and environmental factors can influence the way we behave, which can influence our health studies suggest communities can support dementia risk reduction in three main ways The first is through encouraging social participation and inclusion. This can be achieved through programs that increase digital and technological literacy, social housing and assistance The second is through increasing proximity and access, particularly to health care, and social and cultural events The third is through improving recreational and wellbeing facilities, including traffic safety and increasing and access to urban green spaces to encourage outdoor physical activity Several studies suggest parental education is related to an individual’s dementia risk. Specifically, low maternal education is associated with poorer memory performance, and higher dementia risk. However, these effects are small and adult education and socioeconomic status may overcome these disadvantages Current evidence also suggests migrants from Africa and Asia (into Europe) have higher dementia risk compared with native Europeans. However, the prevalence of dementia in African and Asian countries is not higher than in European countries. Rather, we do see similarly elevated risk of dementia in culturally and linguistically diverse groups of people who are non migrants Part of this is due to the reduced access to high quality education, healthcare, and health information in these groups. For migrants, there is the additional challenge of navigating health systems in their non-native language Another important part to consider is the potential in the tools we have to assess memory and thinking abilities. These tests have been developed primarily in English, for use in European countries. Being tested in a second language may lead to poorer performance that is not a reflection of true cognitive ability, but rather a reflection of a reduced mastery of English This is why it is so important we conduct more research to understand dementia and its risk factors in culturally and linguistically diverse populations, using tools that are appropriate and validated for these groups Undoubtedly, your pay, postcode and parents are highly interrelated. Your future income is highly related to your parents’ level of income. Your postcode can be determined by your pay. The cyclical nature of wealth rather, inequality is part of the reason why addressing health disparities is so challenging. Studies on social mobility the ability of individuals to move from one socioeconomic class to another have shown that upward mobility may only partially compensate for disadvantage earlier in life. This really brings home the message that addressing dementia risk requires a lifelong approach. And that intervention is needed at an individual and a broader societal level.
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