Level of education for Latino population linked to decreased dementia risk
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SAN DIEGO — Decline in dementia risk for Latino populations compared with white counterparts is associated with level of education across generations, a presenter said at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
“Because Latinos face a growing burden of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and we know that education is a well-established risk factor, we wanted to see how intergenerational education affects incident dementia,” Erika Meza, MPH, a doctoral student at the University of California, San Francisco, said during her poster presentation.
Meza and fellow researchers evaluated the association of intergenerational education on dementia and cognitive impairment without dementia (CIND) risk for Latino men and women compared with white counterparts.
Researchers analyzed data from 18,661 U.S. Health and Retirement Study participants (9% Latino, 46% men) from 1998 to 2016, with new entry cohorts enrolled every 6 years. Age-eligible (aged 50 years and older at enrollment) respondents without probable dementia/CIND at baseline were included in the analyses with follow-up waves every 2 years.
Exposure was a 4-category variable based on participants’ and parents’ education in years — first-generation high-school graduate; multi-generation; only parents graduated high school but not respondent; and neither parents nor participant completed high school.
Probable dementia/CIND cases were classified using the Langa-Weir 27-point scale. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between education and dementia/CIND risk and included interactions to evaluate effect modification by gender and race/ethnicity.
Results showed that 31% of participants were classified with probable dementia/CIND during follow-up from 2000-2016, with a mean follow-up of 9 years.
Compared with multi-generational, first-generation graduates showed higher dementia/CIND risk (HR, 1.49; 95% CI: 1.4-1.6) independent of demographic factors. The magnitude of increased risk was smaller for men compared to women and did not vary for Latinos compared to whites.
Compared to multi-generational, only parent graduate showed higher dementia/CIND risk (HR, 2.21; 95% CI, 2.05-2.37), and the magnitude of risk was greatest for Latino compared to white men. Data additionally revealed that, compared to multi-generational, neither-graduates showed higher dementia/CIND risk (HR, 2.37; 95% CI, 2.14-2.64); association did not vary by gender or race/ethnicity.
“There is a benefit in more generations achieving a high school graduation and given the structural barriers a lot of Latino and other minority groups have faced, we believe there are a lot of benefits, if this is an association that’s attributable to growing educational attainment,” Meza stated in her presentation.