Stress may lead to lower cognitive function, study finds

People with elevated stress levels are more likely to experience a decline in cognitive function, a new study found, affecting their capacity to remember, concentrate and learn new things.

Stress is known to take a physical toll on the body, raising the risk of stroke, poor immune response and more. It can also drive people to unhealthy behaviors like smoking and poor physical activity.

The study in JAMA Network Open found that participants with elevated stress levels were more likely to have uncontrolled cardiovascular risk factors and poor lifestyle factors.

But even after adjusting for many of these physical risk factors, people with elevated stress levels were 37% more likely to have poor cognition, the researchers found.

People who struggle with memory slips can be stressed because of the challenges that brings. But the new study suggests that the connection goes the other way, too, with feelings of stress leading to harmful effects on cognition, said Dr. Ambar Kulshreshtha, an associate professor of preventive medicine and epidemiology at Emory University and co-author of the study.

“Stress not only worsens your current cognition, but it can actually have harmful effects in the long-term as well,” he said.

The new research is based on data from a long-term, federally funded study that aimed to understand disparities in brain health, especially among Black people and those living in parts of the South known as the “stroke belt.” Thousands of participants were asked for a self-assessment of stress and surveyed with a standardized assessment of cognitive function, with regular check-ins for more than a decade.