Adults who experienced persistent financial hardship showed poorer cognitive performance and signs of faster brain aging later in life, according to a new study from researchers at University College London.

The findings were based on 2,759 U.K. participants from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, all born in 1946, according to a press release cited in the report.

Researchers examined financial adversity across adulthood and compared those patterns with later measures of cognition and brain health.

Adults who reported persistent financial hardship or low income performed worse on tests measuring verbal memory and processing speed.

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The study also found that adults with persistent low income had poorer brain health on MRI scans. Those scans measured aging markers including brain shrinkage and enlarged ventricles.

Dr. Jacques Wels, study author from the Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL, said that researchers already knew cognitive decline was associated with genetic risks and adverse childhood experience.

However, he said less was known about what happens across the life course when people experience financial stress over time.

"The study clearly demonstrates … that the accumulation of poverty is linked to cognitive decline," Wels said.

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"We used different measures of life course financial adversity and different measures of cognitive decline, and they all show the same results, which makes the results solid."

The associations were strongest among men, people who had disadvantaged childhoods and carriers of a genetic variant linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. The report did not present the findings as proof that financial hardship caused the brain changes.

"The study shows that [while] cognitive decline is both a matter of genetic risks and individual behaviors, it is also affected by the experiences we live [throughout] our lives that we don’t always have control [over]," Wels added.

Based on the findings, the researchers suggested that chronic financial adversity over decades, rather than short periods of hardship, is linked to faster cognitive aging. The authors proposed that this could be related to chronic stress leading to inflammation or increased cognitive load from ongoing financial worry.

At the same time, the study had limitations. Its observational design means it could not prove that financial stress caused the cognitive effects reported among participants.

Wels also noted that the participants belonged to a specific birth cohort. Because they were born in 1946, their life experiences were shaped by the context of that generation.

He said the stronger effects seen among males may reflect the breadwinner role of men in older cohorts. He added that the same pattern might not appear in more recent generations.

The study authors also acknowledged that unmeasured variables may have influenced the results. That possibility remained even after accounting for many other factors that could affect brain health.

The UCL team said reducing long term poverty could help protect brain health. However, they also said more studies are needed to determine whether improving financial circumstances directly reduces the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

The report frames financial hardship as one factor linked with later cognitive performance and brain aging, rather than as a single explanation.

It also places lifelong financial adversity alongside genetic risks, childhood disadvantage and individual behaviors as part of the broader picture researchers are studying.