Associations of Age at Menarche and Education With Episodic Memory in Late-Life Women.

BACKGROUND

Understanding how early-life reproductive timing and educational context shape cognitive aging is critical for addressing disparities in dementia risk among women. However, few studies have examined the relationship between menarcheal age and cognition in a diverse sample. This study examined associations among menarchal timing, education, and episodic memory performance in an ethnically and racially diverse sample of older women from the Health and Aging Brain Study-Health Disparities.

METHODS

Using linear regression models, we assessed whether age at menarche and education were associated with performance on 2 commonly used episodic memory measures. Ethnicity-stratified sensitivity analyses and exploratory longitudinal mixed-effects models were also conducted. The sample included 780 women aged 50 years and older, racialized as non-Hispanic White, Hispanic, and Black.

RESULTS

Earlier age at menarche and higher educational attainment were independently associated with better episodic memory performance, with more robust and consistent associations observed for Logical Memory II compared with the Spanish-English Verbal Learning Test.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that early-life reproductive timing and educational attainment are meaningfully related to episodic memory performance, with test-specific and context-sensitive patterns. Incorporating age at menarche and educational context into life-course approaches to brain health may improve the measurement of heterogeneity in cognitive aging.