Education Can Hold Off Dementia, New USC-Led Study Finds

A study led by University of Southern California (USC) researchers and published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences found education can help older adults ward off dementia, reports USC News . However, USC Professor Eileen M. Crimmins warns people with less education "are more likely to develop dementia, and live longer with it." The researchers used data on cognitive ability for Americans 65 years and older from the 2000 and 2010 Health and Retirement Study. The study cohort was split into four categories for educational attainment: those who did not complete high school, those with a high school degree, those with some college, and those who completed a college degree or higher. Life expectancy with healthy cognition rose for people with more education between 2000 and 2010. The lifespan with good cognition of men and women 65 and over who were college graduates increased by an average of 1.51 years and 1.79 years respectively. The increase in lifespan with good cognition was significantly less among those with the least education — 0.66 years for men and 0.27 years for women. Healthy cognition was typical of most people with at least a college education into their late 80s. "Higher education status appears to provide lifelong cognitive benefits from both its effect on cognitive functioning and its effect on longer life," the researchers concluded.