A better education means dementia comes later but when it does it's faster

Oct 24 2007

According to new research a high level of education delays a decline in memory as people age, but once the decline begins it occurs faster.

A new study from the United States has found that among a group of seniors with dementia, those with higher levels of education had a delayed, but steeper, decline in memory in the years leading up to their dementia diagnosis.

Dr. Charles B. Hall, an associate professor of epidemiology and population health at Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, says the study found that a person with 16 years of formal education would experience a rate of memory decline that is 50 percent faster than someone with just four years of education.

For the study Dr. Hall's team reviewed data on a study started in the 1980s, tracking 488 people living in the Bronx neighborhood, born between 1894 and 1908.

Dr. Halls study focused on 117 of the group who developed dementia over the 27-year study period.

The group included 21 high school graduates, of whom 7 had a college degree and some postgraduate education.

The seniors were given yearly checkups and memory tests in which they had to memorize and immediately recall a list of 12 unrelated words.

The tests showed that in typical participants who had eight years of schooling, accelerated memory loss began 5.5 years before the dementia diagnosis.

In seniors with 16 years of education, accelerated memory loss started later about four years before dementia diagnosis, but it then happened faster.

Dr. Hall says the results do not mean that education causes dementia but the rapid decline may be explained by how people with more education have a greater cognitive reserve, or the brain's ability to maintain function in spite of damage.

Dr. Hall says the study is valuable because it examined memory loss before a formal diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

Other studies have also recorded a quicker memory loss among more highly educated people after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

Experts believe a mix of genetic and environmental factors can affect dementia risk.

The study is published in the journal Neurology.