July 27, 2026
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A study involving nearly 2,800 people born in 1946 found an association between persistent financial worries and earlier cognitive decline.
Continually worrying about money may cause the brain to age more rapidly later in life, a new study finds.
The research, published Thursday, found study participants who were plagued by financial stress performed worse on cognitive tests than people with fewer financial worries. The tests were administered when the participants were 53. Additionally, people experiencing ongoing financial stress, who also had brain scans, showed more brain shrinkage and overall worse brain health by ages 69 to 71.
The study used data from nearly 2,800 people who completed questionnaires throughout their lifetimes as part of a national study in the United Kingdom. The participants are now in their early 80s.
The results were consistent, even when the researchers controlled for other factors, including education level, childhood cognition and childhood disadvantage.
The link between financial stress and a decline in brain health later in life was especially pronounced in men. Men with persistent financial worries also did worse on cognitive tests.
The study was not able to explain why men with persistent financial stress had worse overall brain health than women. The researchers surmised that men born in 1946 – the birth year of the people included in the study – were more likely than women of that age to be the main providers of household income and carry more burden about financial stress. Men also may have been more likely to smoke, drink and engage in other unhealthy behaviors than women, according to the researchers.
Having overwhelming financial stress on an ongoing basis may leave less room for other cognitive tasks and could help explain lower cognitive performance. The decline on memory tests after age 53 was slower, perhaps because the large amount of cognitive damage already had been done, the researchers said.
Also, the chronic stress associated with persistent financial worries may increase inflammation, which can lead to faster brain aging, the researchers said.
The study's main strength is its duration: “Most studies on cognitive aging look at financial hardship at only a single point in time. Our study using several decades of data allows us to see that it is the accumulation of hardship over many years that is linked to the worst cognitive health outcomes, rather than occasional episodes of adversity," Jacques Wels, the study's corresponding author and a quantitive sociologist at the University College London, said in a news release.
But the study found only an association between chronic financial stress and faster brain aging. It did not establish that financial insecurity and worries directly caused cognitive decline.
