Multilingual characteristics and cognition among older adults in India.

INTRODUCTION

Leveraging the Longitudinal Aging Study in India-Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (LASI-DAD), we describe the linguistic profile of multilingual older Indian adults and the association of second language (L2) age of acquisition (AoA), proficiency, and daily use with cognition.

METHODS

Participants (N = 492) completed a language history questionnaire and cognitive battery assessing executive functioning, memory, and language. Models were stratified by education and adjusted for sociodemographic factors.

RESULTS

While L1s varied, the most common L2 was Hindi. Most participants acquired L2 during childhood and reported high understanding and speaking proficiencies. Acquisition location, language use, and reading/writing proficiencies differed by education. L2 proficiency was associated with executive functioning among those with (β = 0.09,[0.01,0.19]) and without (β = 0.07,[0.01,0.13]) formal schooling. Early AoA was associated with better language abilities (β = 0.36,[0.001,0.72]) among those without formal schooling.

DISCUSSION: In India, multilingualism is heterogenous across educational levels. Aspects of multilingualism were associated with cognition but differed by educational background.