1. Postsecondary Education and Late-life Cognitive Outcomes Among Black and White Participants in the Project Talent Aging Study
- Author
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Thomas, Marilyn D, Calmasini, Camilla, Seblova, Dominika, Lapham, Susan, Peters, Kelly, Prescott, Carol A, Mangurian, Christina, Glymour, Medellena Maria, and Manly, Jennifer J
- Subjects
Biological Psychology ,Psychology ,Clinical Research ,Brain Disorders ,Neurosciences ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Acquired Cognitive Impairment ,Prevention ,Aging ,Aetiology ,2.3 Psychological ,social and economic factors ,Mental health ,Quality Education ,Adult ,Black People ,Child ,Cognition ,Educational Status ,Ethnicity ,Humans ,aging ,cognition ,education ,racial disparities ,Clinical Sciences ,Cognitive Sciences ,Geriatrics ,Clinical sciences ,Biological psychology - Abstract
BackgroundHigher education consistently predicts improved late-life cognition. Racial differences in educational attainment likely contribute to inequities in dementia risk. However, few studies of education and cognition have controlled for prospectively measured early-life confounders or evaluated whether the education late-life cognition association is modified by race/ethnicity.MethodsAmong 2343 Black and White Project Talent Aging Study participants who completed telephone cognitive assessments, we evaluated whether the association between years of education and cognition (verbal fluency, memory/recall, attention, and a composite cognitive measure) differed by race, and whether these differences persisted when adjusting for childhood factors, including the cognitive ability.ResultsIn fully adjusted linear regression models, each additional year of education was associated with higher composite cognitive scores for Black [β=0.137; 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.068, 0.206] and White respondents (β=0.056; CI=0.034, 0.078) with an interaction with race ( P =0.03). Associations between education and memory/recall among Black adults (β=0.036; CI=-0.037, 0.109) and attention among White adults (β=0.022; CI=-0.002, 0.046) were nonsignificant. However, there were significant race-education interactions for the composite ( P =0.03) and attention measures ( P
- Published
- 2022