Older people living in poorer neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food may be at greater risk for accelerated cognitive decline, according to a new study led by a University of Iowa researcher. 

The study, led by Boeun Kim, assistant professor in the College of Nursing, investigated whether older adults in urban neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food experienced faster declines in basic brain function. 

The study examined data from nearly 4,800 adults of different races age 65 and older in urban neighborhoods throughout the United States. Researchers found that those living in “unhealthy food environments” — defined as residing in census tracts with both low access to nearby healthy food stores and low income — experienced faster decline in cognitive function compared with older adults living elsewhere. 

Kim’s research team connected data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Access Research Atlas and the National Health and Aging Trends Study, which provides annual data on a nationally representative group of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older. From those combined data sets, the researchers concluded that living in a neighborhood with low food access and low income was associated with accelerated cognitive decline, even after adjusting for individual socioeconomic factors, such as income and education. 

“The food environment is a key social determinant of health, but it is often overlooked in research on cognitive aging,” Kim says. “Given the critical role that nutrition plays in brain health and the fact that older adults often face mobility, social, and financial barriers limiting their access to healthy food, we wanted to explore whether inequity in neighborhood food access could contribute to accelerated cognitive decline.” 

The study results held when adjusted for factors such as race, gender, education, income, geographic region, and neighborhood conditions.

The researchers say the findings highlight the need for policies that address food insecurity and neighborhood poverty as part of broader efforts to support cognitive health in older populations. 

“These results contribute to the literature by suggesting that the food environment is a structural risk factor for accelerated cognitive decline among older adults living in urban areas,” the authors write. 

Researchers also found that Black and Latinx older adults were more likely to live in neighborhoods with both low food access and low income; Kim says this reflects the lasting effects of redlining, disinvestment, and other structural inequities. 

Other study authors are Roland Thorpe Jr., Sarah Szanton, and Laura Samuel from Johns Hopkins University; and Paris Adkins-Jackson from Columbia University. 

The study, “Disparities in neighborhood food environment and cognitive decline among US older adults: a cohort study,” was published online May 6 in the journal BMC Medicine. 

The research was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, branches of the National Institutes of Health.