Having a Paying Job May Help Fend Off Alzheimer’s Disease in Women

The Chicago Tribune reports on a new study that has shed light on a possible risk factor for Alzheimer's disease in females: unemployment. Dr. Elizabeth Mayeda, assistant professor of epidemiology at UCLA, conducted a study on later-life cognitive health in women. She and her team found that working females showed a slower decrease in memory than their non-working counterparts. Mayeda's study was in collaboration with researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, the University of California, San Francisco and Boston College. Mayeda used data from the National Institute on Aging's Health and Retirement Study to examine the memory function patterns of over 6,000 women born between 1935 and 1956. Respondents reported each year between the ages of 16 and 50 whether they were working for pay or had children. They were subsequently grouped by their work and family patterns to examine changes in memory for females over the age of 50, with memory performance measured using standardized tests about every two years. According to Mayeda's findings, there were no noticeable differences in memory between working and non-working women before the age of 60. However, after age 60, females who took part in the paid labor force showed slower memory decline than those who did not. Mayeda concluded that she hopes to see policies implemented that encourage women to join the workforce, such as equal pay and paid family leave, as a way to encourage higher late-life cognitive function.