State and Local Educational Contexts of Older U.S. Adults and Their Association with Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

项目总结 教育程度，通常被概念化并被衡量为人力资本属性，是最强的之一 阿尔茨海默病和相关痴呆的预测因子(ADRD)在老年人中可能是最多的 预防认知障碍和痴呆症的重要保护因素。最近记录到的下降 痴呆症的流行和发病率被归因于历史上教育程度的增加。AS 尽管教育程度上升的趋势放缓，但预计ADRD患病率的下降也将放缓。 虽然教育程度的差异确实随着时间的推移而减少，但老年人 在出生队列和种族之间经历了截然不同的教育背景，特别是黑人老年人 他在美国南部长大。考虑到从1920年到1980年，每个学生的支出增加了6倍，资金 州和地方政府之间的分配变得更加平均，从法律上讲，学校隔离是 被宣布违宪。因此，即使教育程度在最近的人群中保持稳定，不平等 在早期生活中，教育背景可能有助于区分个体的认知障碍风险和 痴呆症。我们的项目通过解决四个问题来解决这个被忽视的痴呆症研究领域：(1) 黑人和白人老年人在出生期间经历了哪些州和地方的教育背景 队列；(2)在降低认知障碍或痴呆症风险方面，教育的运作方式是否不同？ 在黑人和白人老年人中获得更多(或更少)有利的教育背景；(3)生活 涵盖职业、婚姻、行为和健康的课程路径解释了 教育背景、认知障碍和痴呆症，以及这种情况是否因教育程度而异； (4)在学校废除种族隔离的时间和法院授权的范围方面，州一级的差异是如何 废除种族隔离的命令与居住在美国的黑人和白人老年人的认知障碍有关。 在学校的时候去南方？我们将通过创建丰富的纵向数据资源来回答这些问题 我们将链接到健康和退休研究(HRS)，这是一项全国性的 对美国50岁以上成年人进行的具有代表性的纵向研究。我们将通过出生来估计这些关系的变化。 队列和种族。这项研究的预期结果包括：(A)教育背景数据的发展 我们将向科学界提供的资源(ECDR)，以及时回答有关 教育背景和ADRD，大大扩大了我们项目的影响范围；和(B)对 ADRD流行的更广泛的人口趋势和ADRD的种族差异，使我们能够确定 认知障碍和痴呆症风险最大的亚群。

PROJECT SUMMARY Educational attainment, often conceptualized and measured as a human capital attribute, is one of the strongest predictors of Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD) among older adults and perhaps the most important protective factor against cognitive impairment and dementia. Recently documented declines in prevalence and incidence of dementia have been attributed to historical increases in educational attainment. As trends in rising educational attainment slow, it is expected that reductions in the prevalence of ADRD will as well. While it is true that variability in levels of educational attainment has diminished over time, older adults experienced vastly different educational contexts across birth cohorts and by race, particularly Black older adults who grew up in the U.S. South. Consider that from 1920 to 1980, per-pupil spending increased 6-fold, funding allocation became more evenly split between state and local governments, and de jure school segregation was declared unconstitutional. Thus, even if educational attainment remains steady in more recent cohorts, inequities in early life educational contexts may serve to differentiate individuals in their risk for cognitive impairment and dementia. Our project addresses this neglected area of dementia research by addressing four questions: (1) what were the state and local educational contexts experienced by Black and White older adults across birth cohorts; (2) does education operate differently to reduce risk for cognitive impairment or dementia when it is attained under more (or less) advantaged educational contexts among Black and White older adults; (3) do life course pathways encompassing occupation, marriage, behavior, and health explain the relationship between educational contexts and cognitive impairment and dementia and does this vary by educational attainment; and (4) how does state-level variation in the timing of school desegregation efforts and in the extent of court mandated desegregation orders relate to cognitive impairment among Black and White older adults who lived in the U.S. South during school? We will answer these questions through the creation of a rich, longitudinal data resource of state and local educational contexts that we will link to the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative longitudinal study of U.S. adults over 50. We will estimate variation in these relationships by birth cohort and race. Expected outcomes of this study include (a) the development of the Education Contextual Data Resource (ECDR) that we will make available to the scientific community to answer other timely questions about educational contexts and ADRD, significantly expanding the reach of our project’s impact; and (b) insights into broader population trends in ADRD prevalence and racial disparities in ADRD, allowing us to identify the subgroups at greatest risk for cognitive impairment and dementia.