No protective effects of education during normal cognitive aging: Results from the 6-year follow-up of the Maastricht Aging Study.

Dijk, Koene R. A. Van; Gerven, Pascal W. M. Van; Boxtel, M.P.J. van; Elst, Wim Van der; Jolles, Jelle

doi:10.1037/0882-7974.23.1.119

Cited by 107 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…7,8 Recent evidence suggests that higher education is strongly associated with better cognitive performances but not with a slower rate of cognitive decline. [9][10][11][12] These findings are interpreted as supporting a "passive reserve" hypothesis: higher education is associated with better performances because of the persistence of earlier differences rather than differential rates of cognitive decline. In longitudinal studies, this translates into baseline differences between education groups with parallel decline over time.…”

supporting

confidence: 51%

Motor function in the elderly

et al. 2013

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Objective: The reserve hypothesis accounts for the lack of direct relationship between brain pathology and its clinical manifestations. Research has mostly focused on cognition; our objective is to examine whether the reserve hypothesis applies to motor function. We investigated whether education, a marker of reserve, modifies the association between white matter lesions (WMLs), a marker of vascular brain damage, and maximum walking speed (WS), an objective measure of motor function. We also examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal association between education and WS.Methods: Data are from 4,010 participants aged 65-85 years in the longitudinal Three-CityDijon Study with up to 4 WS measures over 10 years. We examined the interaction between education and WMLs for baseline WS. We studied the association between education and repeated WS measures using linear mixed models, and the role of covariates in explaining the education-WS association.Results: Education was strongly associated with baseline WS; the difference in mean WS between the high and low education groups (0.145 m/s, 95% confidence interval 5 0.125-0.165) was equivalent to 7.4 years of age. WMLs were associated with slow WS only in the low education group (p interaction 5 0.026). WS declined significantly over time (20.194 m/s/10 years, 95% confidence interval 5 20.206, 20.182), but education did not influence rate of decline. Anthropometric characteristics, parental education, general health, and cognition had the strongest role in explaining the baseline education-WS association.Conclusions: Participants with more education were less susceptible to WMLs' effect on motor function. Higher education was associated with better motor performances but not with motor decline. These results are consistent with the passive reserve hypothesis. The concept of brain reserve accounts for the lack of direct relationship between brain pathology and its clinical manifestations.1-3 High reserve, assessed via anatomical features of the brain or markers of enriched environments (e.g., education, socioeconomic status [SES]), has been associated with reduced clinical manifestations of neuropathologic changes. [4][5][6] Risk factors have also been found not to be related to the same extent to functional measures among those with high and low reserve. 7,8 Recent evidence suggests that higher education is strongly associated with better cognitive performances but not with a slower rate of cognitive decline.9-12 These findings are interpreted as supporting a "passive reserve" hypothesis: higher education is associated with better performances because of the persistence of earlier differences rather than differential rates of cognitive decline. In longitudinal studies, this translates into baseline

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confidence: 51%

Motor function in the elderly

et al. 2013

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“…Summing up their study, they conclude, that decline in cognitive speed is independently correlated with anterior and overall WMH progression. Those results are similar to those obtained by Longstreth et al (1996), van der Henvel et al, 2006 andvan Dijk et al, 2008. A part of Rotterdam Study conducted by de Groot and others (2000) was also focused on the possible white matter impact on selected neuropsychological variables.1077 nondemented subjects, aged 60 -90 took part in the study. The administrated methods of cognitive assessment contained: Letter-Digit task, similar to one of the WAIS subtest, verbal fluency, verbal memory and global cognitive evaluation (MMSE).…”

Section: Cognitive Sequels Of White Matter Changessupporting

confidence: 74%

Cognitive dysfunctions associated with white matter damage due to cardiovascular burden – determinants and interpretations

Krukow¹

2014

Polish Psychological Bulletin

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“…Education is related to better cognitive performance in late life, and researchers relate the effect to occupational complexity and the acquisition of a lifelong ability to sustain attention and conceptualize problems. Although it is uncertain whether education affects the rate of decline (57), it can affect the cognitive level for all age groups (53,54). Being mentally active, through courses and cognitive training, has been shown to improve cognitive functioning among older people (33,(58)(59)(60).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in cognitive functioning as a refined approach to comparing aging across countries

Skirbekk

Loichinger

Weber

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

138

105

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Comparing the burden of aging across countries hinges on the availability of valid and comparable indicators. The Old Age Dependency Ratio allows only a limited assessment of the challenges of aging, because it does not include information on any individual characteristics except age itself. Existing alternative indicators based on health or economic activity suffer from measurement and comparability problems. We propose an indicator based on age variation in cognitive functioning. We use newly released data from standardized tests of seniors' cognitive abilities for countries from different world regions. In the wake of long-term advances in countries' industrial composition, and technological advances, the ability to handle new job procedures is now of high and growing importance, which increases the importance of cognition for work performance over time. In several countries with older populations, we find better cognitive performance on the part of populations aged 50+ than in countries with chronologically younger populations. This variation in cognitive functioning levels may be explained by the fact that seniors in some regions of the world experienced better conditions during childhood and adult life, including nutrition, duration and quality of schooling, lower exposure to disease, and physical and social activity patterns. Because of the slow process of cohort replacement, those countries whose seniors already have higher cognitive levels today are likely to continue to be at an advantage for several decades to come.

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No protective effects of education during normal cognitive aging: Results from the 6-year follow-up of the Maastricht Aging Study.

Cited by 107 publications

References 71 publications

Motor function in the elderly

Motor function in the elderly

Cognitive dysfunctions associated with white matter damage due to cardiovascular burden – determinants and interpretations

Variation in cognitive functioning as a refined approach to comparing aging across countries

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