OBJECTIVES
To examine whether and how early‐life experiences such as years of schooling affect late‐life cognitive function through a pathway of activity engagement.
DESIGN
Prospective.
SETTING
We used data from 2 waves of the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago (PINE).
PARTICIPANTS
PINE is the largest population‐based epidemiological study of Chinese‐American adults aged 60 and older in the greater Chicago area. Wave 1 data were collected for 2 years, from July 2011 to June 2013, and Wave 2 data were collected from 2013 to 2015; total sample size was 2,713.
MEASUREMENTS
Education was measured in years of schooling. Activity engagement was assessed using 15 items grouped into two clusters: cognitive activity and social activity. Cognitive function was evaluated using five instruments to assess general mental status (Chinese Mini‐Mental State Examination (C‐MMSE)), episodic memory, perceptual speed, working memory, global cognition score.
RESULTS
Adjusting for sociodemographic and health‐related control variables, education measured at Wave 1 was associated with better global cognition (b = 0.025, p < .001), C‐MMSE (b = .037, p < .001), episodic memory (b = .026, p < .001), Symbol Digit Modalities Test perceptual speed (b = .036, p < .001), and Digit Span Backward working memory (b = .047, p < .001) at Wave 2. Activity engagement, cognitive activity in particular, significantly mediates the effect of education on all cognitive tests, with the size of the mediating effect ranging from 16% to approximately 24%.
CONCLUSION
Amount of schooling early in life is significantly related to late‐life cognitive function in virtually all domains, and cognitive activity is one of many links between the two. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:S525–S531, 2019
from Wiley: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society: Table of Contents https://ift.tt/2yPD7r1
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