Abstract
Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with dementia onset, but its transition throughout the life-course is poorly understood. In a prospective cohort of 40,041 participants, aged over 65 years without dementia, we identified ten optimal classifications of life-course SES transitions and their associated impact on dementia. Our results showed a clear significant dose-response pattern with the highest risk of dementia from 1) impoverished SES throughout, 2) impoverished childhood SES with normal adult SES, 3) impoverished adult SES with self-employed in adulthood, 4) high educated with poor adult SES, 5) never having a job, 6) low educated but high SES (self- employed), 7) technician, 8) high educated with poor adult SES, 9) average SES throughout, and 10) high SES throughout. These results suggest that life-course SES history is strongly associated with dementia risk and did not interact with single scale measurement. Further causal pathways and theories are relevant for disease modification.