Neurocognitive disparities: investigating ethnicity and mental health in rural aging adults.

Abstract

Objectives: We explored whether depression and anxiety moderated the association of ethnicity and neurocognitive functioning among a sample of Hispanic and non-Hispanic White rural aging adults.

Method: 1,462 rural dwelling adults (Mage = 59.4 years, SDage = 12.12) were included in the analysis for this study.

Results: MANCOVAs revealed a significant (ps < .001) multivariate effect of ethnicity on all five indices of neurocognitive functioning when controlling for anxiety and sociodemographic variables (V = .20, F(5,1,310) = 64.69) and depression and sociodemographic variables in the second model (V = .20, F(5,1310) = 65.80, p < .001). There was also a multivariate effect of anxiety (V = .02, F(5,1310) = 4.57, p < .001) and depression (V = .04, F(5, 1310) = 11.38, p < .001) on neurocognitive functioning when controlling for sociodemographic variables and ethnicity.

Conclusion: Findings revealed that Hispanic rural aging adults scored lower on neurocognitive functioning compared to non-Hispanic White rural aging adults, irrespective of depression or anxiety. Depression and anxiety contributed to lower scores on neurocognitive functioning-yet this finding was not as robust. Culturally tailored interventions targeting risk factors for neurocognitive impairment in Hispanic rural aging adults are imperative to mitigate neurocognitive disparities. One possible reason for differences in neurocognitive functioning between Hispanic individuals and non-Hispanic individuals is stress as ethnic health disparities have been found to be shaped by a diverse range of lifetime stressors that are disproportionally exacerbated for ethnic minorities.