Association Between Changes in Perceived Neighborhood and Cognitive Performance Within Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity Across the Life Span (HANDLS) Black Adults

Perceived neighborhood characteristics are related to cognitive performance. However, limited studies have examined how changes in neighborhood characteristics relate to cognitive performance, particularly among Black adults who are likely to experience changes in their residential social and physical environments. This study examined the association between changes in perceived neighborhood quality and concurrent, cross-sectional cognitive performance. An analytic sample of 592 Black adults (Mage = 56.22; 58% female) recruited from 13 predetermined neighborhoods in Baltimore City, Maryland, from the ongoing prospective Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study, was included. In the adjusted models, uncorrected multivariable regression indicated that increases in neighborhood disorder were associated with worse attention and visual orientation (β = 0.17, p < 0.001), while increases in social cohesion and social control were associated with better performance in several tasks relating to memory, attention, executive function/reasoning, and visual orientation (βs = −0.12–−0.10, p < 0.05). Interestingly, increasing social control was also associated with slower performance on a measure of executive functioning and reasoning (β = 0.12, p < 0.05). However, after controlling for multiple comparisons, only the association between neighborhood disorder and attention and visual orientation remained significant. Study findings serve as a springboard for future research linking changes in perceived neighborhood quality and concurrent, cross-sectional cognitive performance. These results may also lend support to the investment in neighborhoods as a pathway toward better understanding the association between neighborhood perception and cognitive performance, which may relate to reductions in cognitive decline and in the likelihood of dementia among Black adults who are at greatest risk for late-course diagnosis.