Education doesn’t prevent cognitive decline
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Although a higher level of education attainment is associated with a higher level of cognitive functioning, it does not protect against cognitive decline in old age, contrary to the results of some reports, according to a study sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The association between higher educational attainment and reduced cognitive decline is based largely on studies that measured change at two points in time, study co-author, Dr. Robert S. Wilson, told Reuters Health.
“These studies have had difficulty separating education’s correlation with level of cognition from its correlation with rate of change. Studies such as ours that measure cognition at three or more time points are better able to separate these effects,” he said.
Wilson, at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and colleagues evaluated data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project, in which more than 6,000 individuals had their cognitive function tested at approximately 3-year intervals for up to 14 years.
The findings are reported in the February 3rd print issue of the journal Neurology.
The study participants were 61 percent female, an average 72 years old at the beginning of the study, and had an average of 12.2 years of formal education.
“We conducted the study in a biracial community because little is known about Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in African Americans,” Wilson noted.
Cognition was measured using the results of four brief tests—immediate and delayed recall, perceptual speed, and global mental status.
“Level of educational attainment was robustly related to level of cognitive function” at the beginning of the study, Wilson’s team reports. However, there was little evidence that education level affects cognitive decline in later years.
The association between education and cognitive function was similar for black and white subjects.
Attaining higher levels of education has been associated with a reduced risk of dementia in general, Wilson continued. “Our results suggest that this link is likely due to education’s association with level of cognition, and it is likely that this advantage of higher education applies to all forms of dementia.”
Nevertheless, the current findings suggest that “in old age, people of all levels of education and socioeconomic status can experience cognitive decline.”
SOURCE: Neurology, February 3, 2009.
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