Abstract
State Legislation and Policies and Cognitive Decline
Lawrence Stacey, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University
This project will examine how a wide range of anti- and protective-LGBT state legislation and state policies are associated with cognitive decline in the United States. Using data from the Human Rights Campaign and Movement Advancement Project to track the evolution of LGBT legislation and policies at the state level and data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), I will investigate how such policies are associated with confusion or memory loss, day-to-day activities, and needed assistance in midlife and later life for a probability-based sample of Americans, and whether such associations vary for LGBT and non-LGBT populations.