Older Adult Dementia Risk and Offspring Education in the United States

在美国，患有阿尔茨海默病和相关痴呆症(ADRD)的老年人人数正在增加。记忆力和推理能力的严重丧失可能会破坏个人及其家庭成员的生活质量。然而，教育是一种保护性资源：受教育经验越多的老年人患ADRD的风险越低。教育和认知功能之间的积极联系也延伸到家庭成员的教育资源。成年子女的教育可能特别重要，因为人口趋势是寿命越来越长，生育率下降，婚姻稳定性下降，所有这些都突显了成年子女在老年人家庭网络中的突出作用。该项目将评估儿童教育如何、为什么以及对谁而言与年长父母中的ADRD风险有关。使用来自美国健康和退休研究(HRS)的具有全国代表性的小组数据，该项目有三个目标。第一个目标是比较各种关于子女教育的概念。虽然之前的研究认为较高水平的子女教育对健康有益，但对较低水平的子女教育对父母健康的意义知之甚少。此外，评估子女教育的“门槛”(例如，受教育程度最高或最低的儿童的教育水平)与子女教育的“累积”(例如，受过高等教育的子女的比例)指标是否能更好地预测ADRD风险，将有助于澄清子女教育如何与父母的大脑健康相关。第二个目标将确定儿童教育和父母ADRD风险之间的解释路径(代际支持和父母健康行为和结果)。 该项目的第三个目标将调查儿童教育和父母的ADRD风险之间的关系是否在关键亚群之间存在差异，包括种族、性别和社会阶层。这项工作将产生积极的影响，通过纵向扩展对差异的研究，纳入家庭和生活过程的视角，重点关注个人在以后的生活中保护和增强其认知健康所依赖的一系列资源。因此，该项目的目标与NIA在其21世纪老龄化研究战略计划中描述的研究优先事项保持一致。与R15奖励机制一致，我们将在研究过程中指导和培训本科生和研究生，让他们学习数据管理和分析技能、写作和沟通技能，并获得在当地、地区和国家展示研究成果的机会。该项目将改善鲍林格林州立大学的研究环境，并帮助启动下一代人口健康科学家。

In the U.S., the number of older adults living with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) is increasing. Significant loss of memory and reasoning skills can destroy quality of life for the individual as well as their family members. However, education is a protective resource: Older adults with more education experience lower ADRD risk. The positive association between education and cognitive functioning also extends to the educational resources of family members. The education of adult children may be particularly important given demographic trends of increasing longevity, declining fertility, and less marital stability, all of which underscore the salient role of adult children in older adults’ family networks. This project will evaluate how, why, and for whom children’s education is related to the risk of ADRD among older parents. Using nationally representative panel data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this project has three aims. The first aim will compare various conceptualizations of offspring education. Whereas prior work has considered higher levels of children’s education as a health benefit, less is known about the meaning of lower levels of offspring schooling for parents’ health. In addition, assessing whether “threshold” (e.g., the education level of the highest or least-educated child) versus “cumulative” (e.g., the share of highly-educated children) measures of children’s offspring education better predict ADRD risk will help clarify how offspring education is correlated with parents’ brain health. The second aim will identify explanatory pathways (intergenerational support and parental health behavior and outcomes) between children’s education and parental ADRD risk. The project’s third aim will investigate whether the relationship between children’s education and parents’ ADRD risk differs across key subgroups, including by race, gender, and social class. This work will have a positive impact by vertically extending research on disparities to incorporate a family and life course perspective that focuses on the array of resources individuals draw on to protect and enhance their cognitive health in later life. Thus, the goals of this project align with the research priorities of the NIA described in its strategic plan for research on aging in the 21st century. Consistent with the R15 award mechanism, we will mentor and train undergraduate and graduate students in the research process where they will learn data management and analytical skills, writing and communication skills, and gain opportunities to present research findings locally, regionally, and nationally. This project will enhance the research environment at Bowling Green State University and help launch the next generation of population health scientists.