{"doi":"10.1002/alz.14580","title":"Age at menopause and cognitive function and decline among middle‐aged and older women in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, 2011–2018","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Chinese women experience higher dementia rates than men, yet sex-specific risk factors are understudied. We examined how menopause age affects cognitive function and decline in aging Chinese women. METHODS: Data were from 7419 postmenopausal women 45-101 years of age at baseline in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS; 2011-2018). Menopause age was categorized using clinical cutoffs (<40, 40-44, 45-49, 50-55, >55 years). Cognitive function was assessed with neuropsychological tests up to four times over 7 years, and associations were analyzed using multivariable-adjusted linear mixed-effects regression. RESULTS: Compared to menopause at 50-55 years (3661/7419; 49.3%), premature (<40; 235/7419; 3.2%), early (40-44; 623/7419; 8.4%), and late menopause (>55; 366/7419; 4.9%) were associated with lower baseline cognitive scores. Although the rate of cognitive decline did not differ significantly across menopause age groups, late menopause showed a trend toward faster decline. DISCUSSION: Cognitive health interventions should consider extreme menopausal age as a risk factor. HIGHLIGHTS: Extreme menopausal ages-premature (<40), early (40-44), and late (>55)-are linked to lower baseline cognition versus menopause ages 50-55, persisting over 7 years. Cognitive disadvantage for late menopause (>55) versus 50-55 tends to increase over time. Health interventions should consider extreme menopause ages in women's cognitive health.","journal":"Alzheimer s & Dementia","year":2025,"id":509415,"datarank":0.7903212394397616,"base_score":3.5553480614894135,"endowment":3.5553480614894135,"self_citation_contribution":0.5333022092234121,"citation_network_contribution":0.2570190302163496,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5333022092234121,"citer_contribution":0.2570190302163496,"corpus_percentile":74.54165699698306,"corpus_rank":3292,"citation_count":34,"citer_count":34,"citers_with_citation_signal":12,"citers_with_endowment":12,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":true,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7949,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1047414,"name":"Yingyan Wu","orcid":"0000-0003-1875-7493","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":322305,"name":"Alden L. Gross","orcid":"0000-0002-4678-0562","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":298232,"name":"Carrie Karvonen‐Gutierrez","orcid":"0000-0002-1950-5397","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264318,"name":"Lindsay C. Kobayashi","orcid":"0000-0003-2725-3107","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":550510,"name":"Muqi Guo","orcid":"0000-0001-7081-5158","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":43,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:47:24.513904Z","pmid":"39936226","pmcid":"PMC11815216","fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}