Brain MRI study links neighborhood context with neurological health outcomes
Where you live affects the health of your brain.
In a study of over 2,800 patients, researchers determined that living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods is directly associated with accelerated brain aging, reduced total brain volume, and elevated white matter vascular damage.
“We have shown for the first time in a real-world clinical population that an individual’s environment has clear, quantifiable implications for brain age, and, by proxy, brain health,” John-Paul (JP) Yu, MD, PhD said in the RSNA News article “Where You Live May Influence Your Brain Health.” “The conditions in which individuals are born, live, work and age, profoundly shape long-term neurological health outcomes.”
The research article “Evaluating the Effect of Neighborhood-level Disadvantage on Brain Health: An Imaging Epidemiology Study,” which includes resident Elizabeth Stoeckl, MD, and Richard Bruce, MD as co-authors, builds on a growing body of literature that links social determinants of heath to neurobiological outcomes. This relationship has implications for planning health intervention programs and creating public policy.
Elevated brain age is associated with cardiovascular risk factors, psychiatric illness, and cognitive impairment.
Living with chronic stressors like high blood pressure, poor sleep, or constant stress causes the blood vessels to constrict, restricting blood flow and showing up, in time, as bright spots on MRI. Dr. Yu said these white matter hyperintensities are the “footprints” of cardiovascular damage in the brain, and larger volumes are connected to a higher risk of memory loss, cognitive problems, and dementia.
The study’s findings suggest that the MRI data are observable biomarkers of structural inequity.
“Altogether, these results highlight the role of structural inequities as potential biologically embedded determinants of brain health and advocate for the inclusion of neighborhood context in both neuroimaging research and clinical practice,” the authors conclude.
Read the full research article in Radiology and the article from RSNA News. Results were included in the following publications:
- “Brains age faster among residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods” from Auntminnie.com
- “Brain MRI Study Reveals Higher Brain Age Gap and White Matter Hyperintensity for Those in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods” from Diagnostic Imaging
- “Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Linked to Accelerated Brain Aging” from NeuroscienceNews.com
- “Living in disadvantaged communities accelerates brain aging, MR imaging shows” from Radiology Business
Additionally, the research article was included in the ACR Daily Scan newsletter.