- Cognitive disability has risen significantly among U.S. adults in the past decade.
- Young adults with cognitive challenges have nearly doubled in that time.
- Health factors and socioeconomic challenges may be among the reasons.
More American adults are struggling with “cognitive disability” than just a decade ago. Those folks are having trouble concentrating, remembering or making decisions — and the challenge is particularly bad among younger adults, ages 18 to 39.
Nearly 1 in 10 in that age group are challenged, while the share over age 70 with similar struggles has actually gone down a little bit, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Utah that was published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
And before blame is placed on the stressful impacts of the pandemic, the researchers thought of that and dropped the responses collected from the year 2020, so the data wouldn’t be skewed, using the findings from every other year between 2013 and 2023.
Lead author Ka-Ho Wong, a research associate of neuroimmunology in the University of Utah Department of Neurology, told Deseret News he was especially shocked by the change in rates of cognitive disability among those young adults, which nearly doubled, jumping from 5.1% to 9.7%.
Among adults 70 and older, cognitive disability decreased a little, from 7.3% to 6.6%.
Because cognitive disability and depression often occur side by side, Wong said researchers also excluded those individuals who said they had depression, too. But that also means the increase in the number struggling with memory, concentration and decision-making could be higher.
“Cognitive disability” is defined by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System — the source of the data the researchers analyzed — as “serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions because of a physical, mental or emotional condition.”
And it’s now the most often-reported disability among U.S. adults. The researchers looked at national trends based on self reports, sorted and weighted by age, racial and ethnic populations and factors like poverty to be nationally representative.
A jump in cognitive challenges
Wong said the researchers were especially interested to see if the challenges were growing at the general population level, since much of the other research looks at clinical diagnosis. Theirs isn’t a clinical diagnosis, but rather a population-level assessment that involved data from 4.5 million survey responses over that decade.
The increase in the cognitive challenges began appearing back in 2016, according to Wong, who said he and his colleagues were not able to say what drove the differences.
But while no clear explanation of what changed was found, he added they did think of some possibilities. To definitively link them to the findings, however, would require more research.
He noted that both an increase in economic challenges or in reliance on digital devices could play a role. It’s also possible that younger adults don’t feel as much social stigma and are more willing to discuss and own their cognitive challenges.
But it’s also likely that other factors, including illness and poor mental and physical health are contributing to the increase, as well. And there are other pressures, such as the fact that lots of people struggle with changes in job availability, for instance, he said.
Lending credence to those ideas, the researchers noted the highest incidence among those with household incomes below $35,000 a year and those with chronic health conditions. The low-income group saw an increase over the decade from 8.8% to 12.6%.
Facing and treating health issues
Health could be a significant factor, Wong told Deseret News, noting the possibility that high blood pressure, poor diet and other medical factors are involved.
He said it’s important that health care providers look at those issues and consider the impact on patients because managing chronic conditions could prove vital.
According to the researchers, it’s important that people not hide their struggles, but rather talk to their family doctor or other health care providers to get help.
“We have found that individuals who have a chronic disease or condition such as stroke or high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol, those individuals are at a baseline higher rate of cognitive disability,” Wong said.
“The findings suggest the steepest increase in memory and thinking problems are among these people who are already facing structural disadvantage and we need to really better understand and address these underlying social and economic factors that may be driving this trend,” he added.
The study suggests that memory, focus and decision-making could all potentially improve if those conditions are managed.
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