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Abstract

<p><b>INTRODUCTION: </b>Studies suggest bilingualism may delay behavioral manifestations of adverse cognitive aging including Alzheimer's dementia.</p><p><b>METHODS: </b>Three thousand nine hundred sixty-three participants (unweighted mean population age ≈56 years) at Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos baseline (2008-2011) self-reported their and their parents' birth outside the United States, Spanish as their first language, and used Spanish for baseline and comparable cognitive testing 7 years later (2015-2018). Spanish/English language proficiency and patterns of use were self-rated from 1 = only Spanish to 4 = English > Spanish. Cognitive testing included test-specific and global composite score(s) of verbal learning, memory, word fluency, and Digit Symbol Substitution (DSS). Survey linear regression models examined associations between baseline bilingualism scores and cognition.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>Higher second-language (English) proficiency and use were associated with higher global cognition, fluency, and DSS at follow-up and better than predicted change in fluency.</p><p><b>DISCUSSION: </b>The bilingual experience was more consistently related to 7-year level versus change in cognition for Hispanics/Latinos.</p>

Year of Publication
2023
Journal
Alzheimers Dement
Volume
19
Issue
3
Number of Pages
875-883
Date Published
2023 Mar
ISSN Number
1552-5279
DOI
10.1002/alz.12703
Alternate Journal
Alzheimers Dement
PMID
35768881
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