Having a paying job may help fend off Alzheimer’s disease in women

A new study has shed light on a possible risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease in women: not having a job.

Dr. Elizabeth R. Mayeda, assistant professor of epidemiology at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, conducted a study on later-life cognitive health in women and found that working women showed a slower decrease in memory than their nonworking counterparts.

Mayeda and her team presented their findings at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference recently in Los Angeles. The study was in collaboration with researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, the University of California, San Francisco and Boston College.

Using data from the National Institute on Aging’s Health and Retirement Study, Mayeda examined the memory function patterns of more than 6,000 women born between 1935 and 1956. Women reported each year between the ages of 16 and 50 whether they were working for pay or had children, and were grouped by their work and family patterns to examine changes in memory for women over age 50.