Is income equality also better for your cognitive health? A multilevel analysis on trajectories of cognitive function at older ages

This paper contributes to research on contextual associations with older-age cognitive function by investigating to which extent country-level income inequality is associated with older-age cognitive function and decline. Data came from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), providing information on cognitive function (fluency, immediate and delayed recall) of respondents aged 50-80 years coming from a total of 16 European countries that participated in at least two waves of SHARE. A total of 44,303 observations were available at first and second measurement, 13,509 observations at third measurement, and 9,736 observations at fourth measurement. Three-level hierarchical models (measurements nested within individuals nested within countries) were run, showing that income inequality was negatively associated with cognitive level but not with decline. The findings suggest that income inequality is not associated with cognitive trajectories. Mechanisms of maintaining cognitive function at older ages may not be susceptible to country-level income inequalities.